Support for Brexit Among Ethnic Minority MPs

The same proportion of ethnic minority MPs and white MPs supported Brexit; among Tories, a higher proportion of ethnic minority MPs supported Brexit

According to Lord Ashcroft’s referendum-day poll, only 32% of ethnic minority Britons voted Leave in the EU referendum, compared to 53% of whites. One might therefore have expected relatively few ethnic minority MPs to have backed Leave.

Prior to the referendum, the Guido Fawkes blog compiled a spreadsheet reporting whether each of 649 MPs backed Leave or Remain. I identified ethnic minority MPs using the Wikipedia page, ‘List of ethnic minority politicians in the United Kingdom’. There were 41 in total: 17 Tories, 23 Labour, and 1 SNP. Results are shown in the chart below:

Overall, 24% of ethnic minority MPs backed Leave, compared to 25% of white MPs. Among Tories, 58% of ethnic minority MPs backed Leave, compared to 42% of white MPs. And among Labour, 0% of ethnic minority MPs backed Leave, compared to 5% of white MPs.