The triumph of ethnic-minority Tories

If you had said, even ten years ago, that there was no chance of a white male cabinet minister becoming the next Conservative leader, you would have been greeted with incredulity. Yet it is so today. And it is good, because the change has happened on merit. When the Conservatives began advancing ethnic-minority candidates under David Cameron, I feared it would be tokenistic. One such appointment was making Sayeeda Warsi party co-chairman, only for her to preach about Muslim victimhood; but in general the doors to new talent were opened. I am not sure Cameron got quite what he bargained for, however, because the new entry could loosely be called right-wing. This should not be surprising, because most people of immigrant background, particularly if black or Asian, have grown up in a world where the left claims to speak for them. Many resent this. They have experienced Britain as a free and accepting country, often much more so than the country from which they or their parents came. In economic terms, they cherish opportunity – look at Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi, Sajid Javid and Priti Patel. In social terms, being on average more religious and family-oriented than indigenous whites, they are conservative – look at Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman. In both areas, they detest being ghettoised by the left. Mrs Badenoch, for instance, who is married to a white man with whom she has three children, says she experienced almost no racial hostility in Britain until she encountered it from the left because she dared to be Tory. People like her are forged in a harder political school than people like Cameron, so they tend to be tougher.

Their optimism about Britain makes them much more appealing to voters than Labour’s ethnic minority MPs. As soon as Diane Abbott comes on the telly, you know you are in for a stream of grievance.