ABSTRACT
The central purpose of this chapter is to revisit the theme of the representation of ethnic minority interests within the contemporary British party system and the related issue of the incorporation of ethnic minorities into British party politics. Although this theme was prominent in my book Race and Party Competition (Messina 1989) and it is one that has been explored, to varying degrees, in other scholarly works that have appeared since 1989 (see, for example, Ball and Solomos 1990, Goulbourne 1990, Layton-Henry 1992, Saggar 1992, Solomos and Back 1995, Norris and Lovenduski 1995), it is well worth revisiting for several reasons. First, since the publication of Race and Party Competition, the dynamics of the British party system have substantially changed. Among other important changes, the Labour Party has become much more electorally competitive during the 1990s, and now forms a government. Secondly, recent general elections permit me to reassess some of my earlier arguments pertaining to the relationship between ethnic minorities and the major political parties in Britain. Specifically, we can now evaluate better the merits of my claim that the Labour Party is the most logical and effective vehicle for representing the political interests of ethnic minorities (Messina 1989:150-77). And finally, it is now evident that substantial controversy and confusion reigns in the scholarly literature about the very concept of ethnic minority political interests and, hence, the representation of ethnic minorities as a political constituency in British politics. The contro-versy revolves around two disputed issues. First, do ethnic minorities in Britain share a coherent set of political interests? Second, what do we mean specifically when we use the phrase “the political representation of ethnic minorities”?
