Ethnic Minority Representation After the 2024 General Election: Does Ethnicity No Longer Matter?

With a new record of ethnic minority MPs elected in 2024, Westminster is nearly fully representative of voters of ethnic minority origins. This outcome was not entirely dependent on Labour's landslide, with pre-election analyses showing that diversity of MPs would have improved with all possible election results. The question is: does this parity in descriptive representation mean that race and ethnicity no longer matter for electoral outcomes? Using the example of voters’ evaluations of Rishi Sunak, this article shows that this is not the case. Sunak's ethnicity did matter for a small minority, with a clear ‘ethnicity bonus’ from Indian-origin voters. He also received more support from ethnocentric voters and less so from racially liberal voters, more in keeping with his politics than his ethnicity. This suggests attitudes to ethnicity matter more than the ethnicity of politicians.