LONDON, Feb 3: The UK’s Opposition Labour Party is overhauling its outreach efforts to British Indians, amid concern that the party’s support among the country’s largest ethnic minority has slumped in recent years, according to a media report.
Indian-origin people remain both the largest Asian ethnic group and largest non-white ethnic group in the UK and constitute 3.1 per cent of the population at 1.8 million, according to the 2021 UK census.
The Labour Party led by Keir Starmer has taken a series of measures designed to reconnect with British Indians, including hiring two community outreach volunteers, revamping the Labour Friends of India group and organising a trip to India for two of its senior shadow ministers, The Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.
There is growing evidence that Labour has lost the support of people of Indian descent.
In 2010, 61 per cent of British Indians said they supported Labour, but a survey seen by the Guardian shows by 2019 that figure had dropped to just 30 per cent.
Senior Labour leaders worry that having Rishi Sunak as Britain’s first Hindu prime minister could increase the trend.
Focus groups carried out late last year among first-, second- and third-generation Indians by the consultancy Public First showed the problem facing Labour.
One participant said Sunak’s position showed the “tables were turning” for British Indians, while another commented: “It’s really good how he’s brought the Indian community into the traditions of 10 Downing Street.”
The latest a general election must be called is January 2025, but there is a very small chance that Sunak would want to delay the polls beyond next year.
According to the 2021 Census, Hindus in England and Wales enumerated 1,032,775, or 1.7 per cent of the population.
“We’ve taken Indian voters for granted for years, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious they are going elsewhere and we need to do something about that,” the paper quoted one party official as saying.
A party spokesperson said: “Keir Starmer’s changed Labour party is back in the service of working people and continues to engage with people of all backgrounds and faiths – including our Indian communities.”
The measures being taken by party supporters include setting up a new group called Labour Indians to organise community events and target messages to British Indians on social media.
Krish Raval, the group’s chair, said: “As a canvassing umbrella initiative focused on event organisation and social media dissemination, we’re looking to serve the widest group of stakeholders to ensure a Labour victory.”
Two volunteers have been hired to work with the group, with part of their work focused on briefing Labour parliamentary candidates on issues of importance to India.
On Sunday the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, and the shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will travel to Delhi and Mumbai on a five-day trip also designed to demonstrate the party is not hostile to Indian interests.
Indians are the second-largest immigrant group in the UK.
For years nearly two-thirds of British Indians supported Labour, in line with other minority-ethnic groups.
But that has fallen sharply in recent years. Experts say the shift has come about partly for socioeconomic reasons and partly for religious ones.
As British Indians have become richer in recent years, survey data shows their attitudes have become more conservative.
The UK in a Changing Europe survey shows that most Hindus who voted in the 2019 election supported the Tories.
These long-term trends were exacerbated by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party, given his support for an independent Kashmir – a view that is highly unpopular among Indian Hindus. (PTI)
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