Warsi warns Conservatives won’t win election outright without attracting ethnic minority votes
Baroness Warsi, the Conservative minister who resigned this week over the government’s position on Gaza, has warned the Conservative party that it will fail to win an outright majority at next year’s general election if it doesn’t do more to attract voters from ethnic minorities.
Speaking in interviews with the Independent on Sunday and The Sunday Times following her resignation, Warsi said: "The electoral reality is that we will not win outright Conservative majorities until we start attracting more of the ethnic vote. This issue is not linked to a particular ethnic vote. It is a broader issue about the party being open to a broader range of views and experiences."
Warsi, Britain’s first female Muslim cabinet minister, warned that during her time as party chairman efforts had been made to bring “BME groups into the mainstream campaign,” but “Some of that has been lost, which is a shame."
"[But] I think the party has shifted. The party leadership has shifted since then. I think over time it will be a regressive move because we have to appeal to all of Britain, not just because morally it's the right thing to do, but because it's an electoral reality.”
Warsi also responded to criticism of her resignation by other politicians, including those in her own party, calling men in politics “Some of the bitchiest women I've ever met in my life.”