The British Labour Party and ‘ethnic entryism’: Participation, integration and the Party context

Abstract

Concern has been expressed by some members of the British Labour Party about certain instances of increased membership by people of Asian origin. They imagine them to represent a form of ‘ethnic entryism’, designed to unduly influence the selection of parliamentary candidates. This allegation has elicited the response that such claims are another example of Labour Party racism. In this article, tensions arising from such localised increases in Labour membership are examined and compared with reactions to Irish participants in the Party earlier in the twentieth century. These responses are assessed in light of perspectives developed within the influential notion that British politics has been ‘racialised’. It is argued that these viewpoints need to be at least supplemented by an appraisal of Labour's own institutional context. Undoubtedly, notions which foreground racism contribute something to a comprehension of the Party's attitude to contemporary ethnic minority political participation. Nonetheless, it is suggested here, responses to ‘ethnic entryism’ cannot be adequately understood with sole reference to the concept of racialisation.