Diversity is the first winner in the battle for the post of British Prime Minister: only the white man eliminated

“Don’t vote for me because I’m a woman. Don’t vote for me because I’m brunette. Those words were spoken at the start of the campaign by Suella Braverman, the now outdated candidate whose Indian parents came to England from Kenya and Mauritius in the 1960s. Parliamentary reporter Tom Stanley called him in The Daily Telegraph an unnecessary statement. “I think historians writing about this election in the future will point out two remarkable things. One, that it was incredibly diverse, two, that it didn’t matter to anyone.

The race and gender of the four are indeed barely touched upon in the debates. Rishi Sunak’s Achilles heel? That he is too rich, that he attended a boarding school and that he is considered a member of the international elite. Penny Mordaunt? She is mainly accused of being incompetent. In turn, longtime favorite Liz Truss would try too hard to look like Margaret Thatcher. Nigerian-raised Kemi Badenoch has been accused of undermining the fight against racism with her conservative critique of what she calls “critical race theory”.

A similar accusation was leveled at Thatcher, who became the first woman to lead 10 Downing Street in 1979. During her long tenure as prime minister, she was repeatedly told she was doing too little for the feminist cause. . The famous photo in which she was flanked by dozens of male ministers and state secretaries confirmed this impression. Thatcher has always stressed that it was through hard work that she reached the top. The same meritocratic argument now resonates, especially with the three women in the final battle. The interlude of Old Etonians David Cameron and Boris Johnson have come to an end.

However, meritocracy received a boost from Cameron who, in his 11 years as party leader, from 2005 to the 2016 Brexit referendum, actively contributed to today’s diversity. In his quest to modernize the Conservative Party, this patrician went to great lengths to help women and members of minority groups win seats in the House of Commons. Boris Johnson’s cabinet would certainly become the most diverse government in Europe in terms of skin color. The (former) ministers include sons of refugees from Iraq, Uganda and Sierra Leone, as well as sons of ordinary immigrants from Ghana, India and Pakistan.

This sparked pride in the country of Brexit and the associated scourges towards the Continent. “Brexit and conservative Britain can teach the European Union some things about diversity,” commentator Zoe Strijp said with a smile. She pointed out that Britain has been regularly portrayed abroad as a xenophobic country since Brexit, including by The New York Times, United Nations rapporteurs and Jean-Claude Juncker, former President of the European Commission. Strijp noted that since the departure of the British, and in particular the Brexit Party, the European Parliament has become much whiter.

In this area, British policy mirrors the rest of an open and competitive society. Britons of Asian, African and Afro-Caribbean descent, as well as women, are playing an increasingly important role, with sport and the media at the forefront and, with some delay, business. In schools, recent figures from the Education Inspectorate showed that children of Chinese, Indian and African descent outperform their white classmates on average, especially those from lower social classes.

Its successful diversity helps to ensure that Britain remains a preferred destination for migrants. In fact, after the Brexit vote six years ago, immigration from outside the European Union only increased, against the wishes and thanks of the ruling colored party.