1. M. Bankole, ‘Rishi Sunak as PM is not the UK’s Obama moment’, Independent, 30 October 2022, https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/rishi-sunak-barack-obama-racism-rwanda-b2213692.html.
2. G. Baker, ‘Britain’s Conservatives rise above identity politics’, WSJ, 11 July 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/britain-conservatives-rise-above-identity-politics-rishi-sunak-penny-mordaunt-prime-minister-11657552012.
3. ‘Ethnic minority’ here refers to individuals and groups with non-White ethno-racial heritage. Most of the MPs in the contest have roots in former British imperial, now Commonwealth, nations across the African continent and South Asian subcontinent, including Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman (of Indian heritage), Kemi Badenoch (of Nigerian heritage), and Sajid Javid (of Pakistani heritage). The histories of the candidates in question are discussed further in the body of the paper. The authors note the generalised and reductive nature of the umbrella term ‘ethnic minority’ but yield to it for the purposes of drawing a distinction between the candidates in question and their White counterparts, party members and the wider electorate.
4. On recent trends in ethnic minority parliamentary representation and voting estimates, see E. Uberoi and M. Burton, ‘Ethnic diversity in politics and public life’, House of Commons Library, 30 September 2022, https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01156/SN01156.pdf; M. Sobolewska and N. Begum, ‘Ethnic minority representation in UK local government’, July 2020, https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=49921; and Ipsos, ‘How Britain voted in the 2019 election’, Ipsos, 20 December 2019, https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election.
5. British Indian political conservatism and populism has been discussed by: N. S. Martin, 'Ethnic minority voters in the UK 2015 General Election: a breakthrough for the Conservative Party?', Electoral Studies 57 (2019), pp. 174-85