Political Opportunity Structure, the Conservative Party and the Gap Between Substantive and Descriptive Representation of Ethnic Minorities in Britain

The 2010 general election in Britain saw a marked shift in the understanding of ethnic minority representation, with a significant number of ethnic minority candidates successfully elected by almost entirely white British electorates for the first time. This has broken the long-standing paradigm where ethnic minority candidates were selected for only the most diverse seats and were explicitly expected to represent the interests of the ethnic minorities. This change has been driven by the Conservatives, motivated by an inability to win seats with a substantive proportion of ethnic minority electorate, and by the problematic image of being an all-white party. However, the same opportunity structure creates perverse disincentives to represent minority groups substantively. This paper uses Hansard records and the 2015 British candidate survey to explore the relationship between party, selection process and the representative styles of minority candidates and representatives. Is there a growing gap between descriptive and substantive representation?