Cameron faces challenge of wooing ethnic minorities

Outside a row of shops and cafés in west London yesterday, David Cameron took on the daunting challenge of reaching out to voters previously immune to the Tories' charms.

The party has poured huge resources into fighting next week's by-election in Ealing Southall. The area has been loyal to Labour since the 1920s, but there are signs of a slump in the Government's traditional support among the ethnic minorities who make up two-thirds of the electorate.

The Tories have been boosted by the selection of a charismatic young candidate, Tony Lit, and defections by prominent local Asian Labour supporters.

But it is not easy going for Mr Cameron's new-look party, which needs to poll strongly - and beat the Liberal Democrats into third place - to prove it is capable of spreading its appeal beyond the shires and suburbs.

As Mr Cameron pressed the flesh outside Café Nell, he claimed to detect a "seismic" shift of opinion toward the Tories among Asians as they identified with his party's emphasis on supporting the family and communities.

Then he was confronted by Maryam Ahmed, a 36-year-old NHS worker, who protested over the lack of black and Asian faces on the Tory benches in Westminster. She said: "You have got a very short time to prove to us you are not racist and your party is not racist."

He promised the situation would change after the next election and added: "My party is not prejudiced. There is not a bone of prejudice in my body."

Mr Cameron was pursued by a group of drum-banging local traders protesting over Tory-run Ealing Council's decision to auction off shops on Southall High Street to the highest bidder.

On the other side of the constituency, the Liberal Democrats' Charles Kennedy, their former leader and most accomplished campaigner, arrived 40 minutes late but was soon into his stride.

The Liberal Democrats are fighting a vigorous pavement politics campaign, remorselessly leafleting the area with reminders of their opposition to the Iraq war and the local credentials of their candidate, Nigel Bakhai.

Labour's anxious hierarchy is busing in MPs to knock on doors, and cabinet ministers have visited, including two trips by David Miliband, the new Foreign Secretary, to Sikh temples.
The Independent