According to the BBC, the Conservative Party looks set to be the biggest party but with a hung parliament. This is the first hung Parliament since 1974. They must count the ballots by hand in Britain, because these results would've been much speedier for Congressional races here in USA. I'll have to double check after all the results are tallied, but I think the Conservative Party may have more black parliamentarians than the Labour Party. Assuming that the three of four Labour Party incumbents were re-elected and the party got no black pickup seats from the Tories, then the Tories have probably at least equalled them.
Here are the three new black Conservative members of the House of Commons, plus one black Conservative who was re-elected for his seat and who will become a cabinet minister (Lord John Taylor, another black Conservative, is in the appointed House of Lords):
Windsor, southern England | Tech entrepreneur & maybe the incoming Minister of State for Science & Innovation
Election Analysis: With 71.3% voter turnout, Mr. Afriyie put a spanking on the field in his district. He garnered 60.8% of the vote, further pushing the Conservative-dominant district into blue territory with an 11.4% increase in Conservative vote share from his 2005 election (where he increased the Tories' share of the vote from his predecessor). The second place finisher, Julian Tisi of the Liberal Democrats, got 22.4% of the vote. The Labour Party came in third place, with 9.9% of the vote. With these stats....perhaps there is a future Prime Minister on our hands?
Given that it's a hung Parliament, I'm not sure what is the status of Mr. Afriyie's promotion from shadow minister for science & innovation to the minister in power.
Background: Mr. Afriyie - a tech entrepreneur with an estimated net worth of US$156 million - has a Ghanaian father and white British mother. This blog had Mr. Afriyie pegged as someone to watch back in 2004, before he joined the Parliament. It's good to see it coming to fruition.
Helen Grant, 48 - First Black Female Conservative In British Parliament
Maidstone & The Weald, southeastern England | Attorney
Election Analysis: With 68.9% voter turnout, Ms. Grant is now the first black female member of Parliament, for the mostly white, rural, and staunchly Conservative district of Maidstone & The Weald of Kent. She received 48% of the vote. Peter Carroll of the Liberal Democrats came in second place (36%) and the Labour Party candidate was in third place with only 9.7% of the vote. She was chosen by Conservative Party leader David Cameron to succeed Ann Widdecombe, who is retiring.
There have been minor complaints from local activists that she is "insufficiently Conservative" (because she was once a Labour Party member, she's only been a Conservative Party member for four years, and some local activists didn't like that she made the A-list so quickly), which may partly explain why there was a 3.8% decline in the Conservative vote from the 2005 election.
Background: Ms. Grant, whose father is Nigerian and whose mother is white British, studied law at Hull University and is a practicing attorney.
Sam Gyimah, 33
Surrey East, southeastern England | Banker
Election Analysis: With 71.1% voter turnout in his Conservative-dominant district, Mr. Gyimah put a spanking on the field. He garnered 56.7% of the vote and kept the seat in Conservative hands. He even very slightly increased the vote percentage that now-retiring MP Peter Ainsworth received in the 2005 election (56.2%). The second place finisher in yesterday's election, David Lee of the Liberal Democrats, got 25.9% of the vote. The Labour Party came in third, with 9% of the vote.
There was some drama among some Conservative Party activists about Mr. Gyimah not being from the district (even though Tory activists still chose him in a straw poll among six candidates to be the party's local candidate) but that clearly was a small faction.
Background: An ex-Oxford Union president whose parents come from Ghana, he was voted CBI's "Entrepreneur Of The Future". He writes on his website: "In 2003, I left my City Job at Goldman Sachs to start a small business which trained and placed low-skilled people into work. When I left three years later, we were turning over £10m [US$15.5 million], had a staff of 70, had trained 4,000 people and I was named CBI Entrepreneur of the Future for my efforts."
Kwasi Kwarteng, 34
Spelthorne, southeastern England | Journalist & historian
Election Analysis: With 67.1% voter turnout, Mr. Kwarteng garnered 47.1% of the vote, with the second-place finisher (Mark Chapman of the Liberal Democrats) getting 25.9%. The Labour Party came in third, with 16.5% of the vote. Although Mr. Kwarteng won, he did win with less than what the Tories got in the 2005 election (50.5%).
Background: Mr. Kwarteng, whose parents are from Ghana, writes on his website: "I was very fortunate to win a scholarship to Eton College, when I was 13. I enjoyed History in particular, which I then proceeded to read at Trinity College, Cambridge. I earned a Bachelor's degree and a PhD in British History and was also on the series-winning team on University Challenge in Jeremy Paxman's first year as the host. I have worked as a company analyst in the City for seven years, and as a journalist." His book, Ghosts of Empire, about the British Empire's global legacy, will be published soon.
It can't be a coincidence that all of the black Conservatives in the House of Commons will be of West African background, as opposed to Caribbean background (Lord John Taylor in the House of Lords - again, an appointed position - was born in Jamaica though). More specifically, most of the black Conservatives are of Ghanaian ancestry. Then again, Ghana does have a vibrant center-right going back seven decades, with its own Founding Fathers of Ghanaian conservatism.
The Losses
Unfortunately, Shaun Bailey didn't win in his swing district. Andy Slaunghter, the incumbent Labour parliamentarian, got 43.9% of the vote to youth worker Mr. Bailey's 36.4% (with the Liberal Democrat candidate in third place, with 15.9%). Mr. Bailey's working-class, community activist conservatism would've been a good addition to Britain's political scene. I wonder if the Lib Dem surge took votes that would've otherwise gone to Mr. Bailey? On the bright side, Mr. Bailey did increase the Tory share of the vote by 2.4%. Well, maybe he'll run again in the future.
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones didn't win in his swing district either. The winner, Duncan Hines of the Liberal Democrats, got 45.8% of the vote to entrepreneur Mr. Emmanuel-Jones' 41.1%. Mr. Emmanuel-Jones did increase the Conservative Party share of the vote by 3.4% from the 2005 election. However, unfortunately for him....so did Mr. Hines for his political party.
Davena Rankin garnered 11.5% of the vote (fourth place), in a Labour-dominant district in Scotland. That was gonna be an uphill battle from the jump.
Loanna Morrison garnered 17.1% of the vote (third place) in a Lib Dem-dominated district. She did increase the Conservative Party's share of the vote by 4.1% in this tough district, so don't be surprised if she pops up in a more winnable district at the next election.
Kemi Adegoke garnered 22.2% of the vote (third place) in her Labour-dominant district.
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BRITISH ELECTION RESULTS: Year Of The Black Conservative: Bookeristas In The House Of Commons
