Today's blog post is written by Runnymede research and policy analyst Phil Mawhinney

The UK Conservative Party is currently asking why only one in six black and minority ethnic (BME) voters plumped for them at the last election.  As the BME population increases – 16% by 2016 – and parliamentary majorities remain elusive, they know they have to think about this properly.

So how does the party view BME communities? David Cameron’s 2011 speech at the Munich Security Conference , widely reported as claiming that ‘state multiculturalism has failed’, gives some insight.  The basic argument, that ‘Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream’  was much-disputed at the time.

But recent research by social psychologists, discussed at an event earlier this month, critiques this understanding of multiculturalism, identity and ‘Britishness.’

Today's blog post was written by Runnymede's deputy director Sarah Isal

Any general election or presidential campaign is interesting for many reasons, not least the fact that this is the time when different parties and candidates lay out their plans, vision and aspirations and put forward their case for being elected. The upcoming French presidential election campaign is particularly important to keep an eye on from the perspective of race equality and immigrants’ rights. 

This is partly because ever since 2002, when Jean Marie Le Pen, then leader of the extreme right party Front National made it into the second round of the election at the expense of socialist Lionel Jospin, French politicians, especially on the right, know all too well that they need to capture his electorate to win the election. In order to do so, they have to make sure that certain themes are central to the campaign, namely immigration, law and order and of course more recently Islam and Muslims.

Last week’s election saw the largest ever number of BME MPs elected to parliament, with the number rising from 14 to 27.

Whilst high profile candidates such as Conservatives Shaun Bailey and Willfred Emmanuel Jones were narrowly beaten, others such as Labour’s Rushanara Ali and Chuka Ummuna, and the Conservatives’ Priti Patel and Helen Grant, made it to Westminster.

Labour’s David Lammy and the Conservatives' Adam Afriyie were returned to parliament, although Dawn Butler lost her seat to Lib Dem Sarah Teather.

Organisations across the equality sector have run high profile campaigns this election – will these ensure that equality is given the attention it deserves by whoever is elected on Thursday?

Given the excellent work done by many organizations this election, I thought it would be worth providing an overview of some of the most eye-catching campaigns run by those working on equality issues.

First up, Stonewall has painstakingly compiled the voting records of all MPs on LGBT equality issues over the last parliament. The votes covered include the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2009; Amendment 21 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill; and incitement to hatred in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.

Fawcett ran a high profile “What about Women?” campaign this election which included holding a debate on the issue with equalities spokespeople for the three major parties - Harriet Harman, Theresa May and Lynne Feathersrtone. In addition, they have helpfully asked all major parties – including Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the Greens – three major questions on gender equality, the answers of which are available on their website.

Just a quick post to draw attention to the Operation Black Vote rally which took place in Westminster last night. The event – called “Black Britain Decides” –  was attended by around 2500 BME voters and focused on a number of issues including representation and the DNA database.

In what looks to be the largest political rally of the campaign, high-profile representatives of all the major parties took part including Harriet Harman, George Osborne and Vince Cable. OBV have frequently pointed out that marginal seats across the country could easily be swung by ethnic minority votes, including Finchley and Golders Green, Solihull, Battersea, Crawley, Harlow, Bradford West, Ealing North, Birmingham Yardley and Hove.

A write up on the event is available on the Guardian and I’m sure further info will be available on the OBV blog later in the day.

Following blog posts written by Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg for the Operation Black Vote blog outlining their parties’ race equality policies, Theresa May has today highlighted how the Tories plan to help BME communities.

May – who is the party’s equalities spokesperson – argues in the post that the Conservative Party is committed tacking discrimination and promoting equality. She states that there is clear evidence that race is a “key influence” on individual achievement, highlighting the disproportionate number of black children excluded from school and the low numbers of BME students attending Oxford University.

She states that the party supported the Equality Act in parliament and adds that the Equality and Human Rights Commission will have a continuing role in protecting the rights of individuals and groups.

Dimsum, the website for the British Chinese community, recently reported on the launch of the UK’s first ever Chinese manifesto in the House of Commons. As Britain’s third largest minority ethnic group, the manifesto highlights the specific needs of the community and urges politicians to take these issues into account in the current election campaign and beyond.

Compiled by the BC Project – which works for the “integration of British Chinese into politics” – the manifesto was presented to MPs from the three main parties. Divided into 11 chapters, the manifesto itself focuses on funding for Chinese community associations, racism, support for the elderly, the Chinese catering industry, health and integration.

Following Gordon Brown’s post on the Operation Black Vote blog yesterday, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has followed suit with a post on his party’s policies for BME communities.

Arguing that the Lib Dems will ensure that the statute book protects BME communities, Clegg states that his party will uphold the Human Rights Act and support the EHRC.

Highlighting the over-representation of black men in the criminal justice system, he argues that the Lib Dems will make stop and search intelligence led and will remove innocent people from the DNA database. He also labels CLG’s PREVENT programme as one which “alienates” Muslim communities.

Gordon Brown has today written a post for the Operation Black Vote blog on Labour’s policies for BME communities.

In the post, Brown defends Labour’s record on fighting racial prejudice, particularly highlighting the party’s introduction of a duty for all public bodies to tackle racial discrimination, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006, this year’s Equality Act and the establishment of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

On the rise of the far-right, Brown states that Labour is working closely with faith communities, trade unions and community organisers to defeat the BNP.

Today David Cameron, Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and a number of parliamentary candidates signed up to an asylum election pledge.

Coordinated by Liberty, the Refugee Council and the Scottish Refugee Council ahead of tonight’s second prime ministerial debate, the leaders have agreed to “never play fast and loose with the proud tradition of a nation that must always offer succour to those in genuine fear of persecution”.

In addition to the party leaders, scores of parliamentary candidates up and down the country have signed the pledge which will be open until May 6th. Elfyn Llwyd, parliamentary group leader of Plaid Cymru, and Alex Salmond, leader of SNP, have also signed the pledge.

Following the ippr’s findings that immigration does not increase BNP support, the Guardian has published a letter today calling for the three main political parties to publicly declare that racism has no place in politics.

Signed by 17 high profile activists – including Runnymede’s director Rob Berkeley, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Operation Black Vote director Simon Woolley – the letter argues that due to closely fought nature of this election, there will be the temptation to make concessions to placate supposed racist voters. In addition, the letter adds that whilst the three main political parties all oppose racism, it “is not enough”.

Highlighting that some sections of the media are “unrestrained in their anti-immigrant and anti-asylum-seeker rhetoric”, the letter argues that we are drifting towards the normalisation of racist discourse. Its adds that “those who would like to promote racist policies towards asylum seekers…have learned to disguise their views in emollient and euphemistic words”.

Those of you who read my posts last week on the party manifestos will have noticed that aside from immigration and civil liberties they included few direct policies on race equality. The notable exception to this rule was of course the Lib Dems who released their own race equality mini-manifesto.

Readers may therefore find it useful to read a collection of papers written for Runnymede by the three main parties specifically on race equality. Released earlier this year, the papers were written by Communities and Local Government Secretary John Denham MP (Labour), Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve MP (Conservative) and Liberal Democrat Shadow Equalities Spokesperson Lynne Featherstone MP.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the past few days, you will have noticed that the UK’s first ever election leadership debate took place last night. The first of three such debates over the next two weeks, Brown, Cameron and Clegg went head to head on home affairs issues including immigration, crime, education and the NHS.

Of direct interest to race equality, the three leaders locked horns on the contentious issue of immigration. Defending the government’s record, Brown stated that "we are a tolerant, we are a diverse country, but the controls on migration that I'm introducing - and I will go further - are the right controls, the right policy for Britain."

Cameron outlined his vision for an immigration cap, stating that: "we need to have not just a points system, but also a limit on migration when people are coming from outside the European Union for economic reasons."

Clegg highlighted the need for a regional approach to immigration, saying that under such a system “you only make sure the immigrants who come go to those regions where they can be supported."

The Lib Dems are the only party to release a race equality manifesto ahead of the election. Focusing on key policies from its main manifesto, the Lib Dems directly highlight how these policies could potentially benefit those from BME communities.

First, the race equality manifesto argues that proposals to scrap income tax for those earning under £10,000, the introduction of a pupil premium in schools and renovating empty houses are all policies which will help BME communities.

On the DNA database the Lib Dems argue that children and the innocent will be removed, and second generation passports requiring fingerprints will be scrapped.

Echoing recommendations made in our 2008 report on faith schools, the Lib Dems state that they will ensure that faith schools develop an inclusive admissions policy and that they end “unfair discrimination base don faith” when recruiting staff.

The big idea in the Tory manifesto is re-distributing power from the state to individuals, families and local communities. The party argues that by giving people more power over their public services poverty and inequality will decrease. The manifesto also argues that by promoting equality and tackling discrimination, everyone will be able to “play their part” in this new society.

Other relevant measures announced in the manifesto focus on crime, immigration and civil liberties, including an increase of prison capacity.

All three of the main parties have now released their manifestos, so over the next few blog posts I’ll highlight the key race equality issues included in all. First up is Labour, whose manifesto was launched on Monday.

Focusing on the themes of the economy, public services and democratic reform the Labour manifesto does not directly focus on issues regarding race equality and community cohesion. It does however outline measures on immigration, terrorism and criminal justice, and defends the government’s record on equality.

And they're off! Gordon Brown has confirmed this morning that the election will take place on 6 May 2010. Flanked by his cabinet, Brown made the announcement outside Downing Street where he emphasised his "ordinary background", adding that he will fight hard for families on modest incomes.

Cameron launched the Conservative campaign outside the Houses of Parliament where he argued that the Tories will be fighting for "the great ignored... the young, old, rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight".

Full coverage of today's announcement is available on the BBC, and to keep an eye on the yo yo-ing opinion polls check out the UK Polling Report site.

In the meantime, for coverage of announcements impacting on race equality and the BME community during the election campaign don't forget to keep checking back to this blog!

David Cameron addressed black voters yesterday at an event in Peckham where he answered questions on issues facing the local and wider community. The Evening Standard has reported that at the event Cameron pledged to call an end to police using terrorism laws to search people not suspected of terror-related offences. He also stated that he would increase powers to prevent BNP members from becoming teachers.

Also of interest, Cameron announced in an article in the Guardian that if elected he will introduce a national mentoring programme for black people wanting to start a business.