Minority candidates for Westminster continue to suffer electorally from ethnic and religious prejudice

Incumbent political representatives benefit from the presence of British, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) challengers in their constituency, according to a worrying new study into the role that the race and ethnicity of candidates played in the 2010 British General Election. Summarising the research, Mary Stegmaier, Michael Lewis-Beck and Kaat Smets show that the incumbent party in a constituency typically gained at least two percentage points in vote share when they had a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic challenger.