Cameron rattled by dissent on mission to woo Asian voters

David Cameron was given a rough reception when he want to meet voters in Ealing Southall yesterday as he found himself harangued several times by residents during a walkabout before next week’s parliamentary by-election.

Within the space of a few dozen yards he was confronted by a woman who criticised him for the lack of black and Asian Tory MPs and by another, visibly upset, who objected to his policy group’s proposal for tax breaks for married couples.

Next he was waylaid by a group of local traders, one banging a large drum, who were protesting at the Tory council’s auction of town-centre shops. A woman in a butcher’s shop also complained of the council’s lack of provision of local parking.

Although other shopkeepers and passers-by were friendly to the Conservative leader the incidents, watched by journalists reporting on the by-election, damaged attempts by the Tories to claim newfound support from ethnic minority voters.

The fiercest clash came when Mr Cameron was challenged by Maryam Ahmed, 36, a local health service worker, over why his party did not do more to choose black and Asian candidates in safe Tory constituencies and so win seats in the Commons.

In a heated exchange, Ms Ahmed told him he had 200 safe Tory seats and had not done enough to ensure more would be represented by MPs from ethnic minorities. She told him: “You have got a long way to go to prove to us your party is not racist.” Mr Cameron, who tried to interrupt her with points about his abandoned A list for priority parliamentary candidates, looked taken aback and replied: “My party is not prejudiced. There is not a bone of prejudice in my body.” Ms Ahmed, who admitted she was a Labour supporter, said: “He is quite fake ? all about image.”

Mr Cameron was confronted in West Ealing by an Asian woman who argued about calls for £20-a-week tax breaks for married couples, put forward by a policy group led by Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader. The woman said her mother had raised three children as a lone parent and told Mr Cameron it was no use paying couples to stay together and accused his party of undermining other families. “It is crazy. It is the wrong message to send to lone parents. I hope you listen,” she said.

Mr Cameron fared better as a group of traders, one beating a drum and carrying signs, saying, “We want justice”, tried to drown out his conversations. Their leader, Leshmmy Gill, said the Conservative council had taken her newsagent’s shop away to auction the unit at a price beyond her means.

His difficult encounters sat uneasily with claims by Mr Cameron as he began his walkabout of growing support for his party from Asian voters. He said: “I think there is actually something quite seismic happening here in Ealing and amongst the British Asian community. I think they are looking at the Conservative Party and at the change in the party, looking at the excellent candidates we have got here, and they are saying, ‘Actually, many British Asians share the values of the Conservative Party, support for the family, belief in strong communities.’ ” The Conservatives were also accused by Labour of misrepresentation after it emerged that two ex-Labour councillors who joined the party, described by senior Tories as “defectors”, had been expelled by Labour a year ago. A noticeboard in the Tory campaign headquarters yesterday still referred to the pair as “defectors”.

Parmod Kad and Sarbjit Singh Gill were deselected before local elections in Hounslow last year and prevented from standing again. When both stood unsuccessfully as independents they were thrown out of the party under rules that ban members from standing against any Labour candidate.

Joan Ryan, Labour’s deputy chairman of campaigns, said: “David Cameron’s latest stunt has yet again collapsed into farce as his two so-called defectors are exposed as no such thing. It appears that they are now so desperate that they have to let us know every time they recruit two new members in a nearby borough.”

Later, Charles Kennedy, the former Liberal Democrat leader, enjoyed a warmer reception as he went on a walkabout of his own on Ealing Broadway and met Muslims after Friday prayers at a mosque in Hanwell.
The Times