Is rise of South Asians, Rishi Sunak and Humza Yousaf in UK politics because of increasing diversity or more wealth?

When Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Humza Yousaf was sworn in as first minister last week, Twitter responded with wisecracks and memes about how the son of Pakistani immigrants would negotiate the partition of Britain with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the son of Indian immigrants.

But the ironic references to the 1947 split of British India into India, Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh, were both premature and inaccurate.

While campaigning to become SNP leader, Yousaf distanced himself from attempts by his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon to frame voting in Scotland during the next British general election as a de facto referendum on independence.

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Instead, he pledged to focus on building a strong, sustainable majority for the SNP before lobbying London for a second independence vote.

This means Yousaf will initially focus his politics on undermining the popular appeal of the Scottish Labour Party - which is led by Anas Sarwar, who shares Yousaf's Pakistani roots.

Both are from well-off families, and graduates of the prestigious private Hutcheson's Grammar School in Glasgow, mirroring Sunak's education at the elite Winchester public school in England.

Analysts say their rise to the top of British politics reflects the determination of the South Asian community - officially classified as "Asians" - to transcend their ethnicity.

British Asians born in the 1970s and 1980s "have higher expectations of equal opportunities than their parents did", said Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a London-based think tank.

"There has been strong progress in education", with ethnic minority Britons slightly more likely to graduate from university than whites, he said.

"That matters because the UK has a much more open political elite for those with the educational and professional credentials valued within the political class," Katwala told This Week In Asia.

Aamir Ghauri, a British-Pakistani journalist based in Islamabad, said British Asians had "come full circle now in British society".

"Owning a cash and carry chain or a string of corner shops is no longer considered 'success' by fourth-generation Asians," he said. "They seem to want more now from a society where their ancestors have worked hard and achieved success."

Sunak's parents are both medical professionals, Sarwar's grandfather established a cash and carry chain, and Yousaf's father is an accountant.

Katwala said the rise of Sunak, Yousaf and Sarwar "marks a rapid acceleration in ethnic and faith diversity at the top of British politics".

The first post-war Asian and black politicians were elected in 1987 but progress remained very slow for a generation after that, he said.

One significant factor was that party selectorates, from political leaders to grass roots members, were sceptical about the reception of ethnic minority candidates by voters, particularly outside inner city areas.

"That proved a somewhat exaggerated pessimism when tested, particularly after David Cameron's proactive effort to diversify the Conservative Party from 2010," Katwala said.

Things have opened up for black and Asian British politicians, from different ethnic and faith backgrounds, "especially those from Commonwealth backgrounds", he said.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is black and the short-lived administration of Liz Truss in 2022 briefly had a black Chancellor of the Exchequer in Kwasi Kwarteng, Katwala pointed out.

Last summer, there were black and Asian candidates for leadership of the Conservative Party, with Kemi Badenoch in the last four alongside Sunak, Truss and Penny Mordaunt.

The UK's 2021 census showed 10 per cent of the population was Asian, and about 4 per cent was black, and "the balance of ethnic minority MPs from black and Asian backgrounds does seem broadly reflective of that", Katwala said.

But it is also "a salient fact" that Sunak is Britain's wealthiest prime minister, and has more in common with every other millionaire who has ever led this country, "than a working-class Asian person", said Labour councillor Salman Shaheen.

"And while the ethnic makeup of the House of Commons may be inching steadily closer to reflecting the UK's population, politics remains a predominantly upper or middle-class sport," he said.

"If you look at the median household wealth in the UK by ethnic group", it is highest among white British people followed by Indians, then Pakistanis, with black and Chinese ethnic groups falling somewhat lower, Shaheen said.

"Wealth and class are tickets not only to a better education, but better connections, and networking opportunities, social and cultural capital, and all the trappings of a glittering career in politics," he said.

Nevertheless, a crucial factor in making ethnic minority political leadership in Britain possible is much reduced social distance between ethnic groups, particularly across generations, Katwala said.

According to a British Future survey published in May 2022, the percentage of Britons who believed that "having a wide variety of backgrounds and cultures is part of British culture" rose to 72 per cent last year from 49 per cent in 2011.

Likewise, the percentage of Britons who thought diversity "undermined British culture" fell to 28 per cent from 51 per cent over the same period.

"If majority-minority relationships were characterised in 'them and us' terms, there has been a broad social shift towards a strong consensus particularly that British-born ethnic minorities are fully and equally British," Katwala said.

The competing political ideologies of Sunak, Yousaf and Sarwar are examples that "ethnic diversity becomes a new normal in politics when it can be found across the political spectrum", he said.

Analysts pointed to the right-wing anti-immigration politics of British Home Secretary Suella Braverman, a politician with Indian-Mauritian roots, and her predecessor Priti Patel, as examples.

In an article for the Daily Mail published on Sunday, Braverman vowed to "track down and punish" sex-grooming gangs that she described as "groups of men, almost all British-Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values".

Braverman's claims contradicted a Home Office report, published in 2020 when she was attorney general, which found gangs of men involved in grooming underage girls for sex were mostly white, although the number of Asian and black sexual predators was disproportionately high relative to their population.

In an interview with Sky News on Monday, Sunak did not endorse her singling out of British Pakistanis, but echoed her contention that whistle-blowers were often ignored "due to cultural sensitivity and political correctness".

Labour councillor Shaheen said this showed that "some people from successful, long-standing migrant communities can fall into a drawbridge mentality when it comes to new arrivals".

"Meanwhile, successful Conservative politicians frequently climb a ladder and then burn it down to stop anyone else following them," he said. "These are products of right-wing ideology and an us vs them attitude."

Likewise, political battles over Brexit, Scottish independence, migration and wealth redistribution are not battles particular to the British Asian community, "but British Asian politicians are waging them on both sides as inductees into the establishment", he said.

"It is, in and of itself, a sign of increasing diversity and racial equality that we have seen British Asians rise to prominent positions, which is a victory in the simplest terms," Shaheen said.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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