First black or Asian PM will be Tory: David Cameron, British PM

LONDON: In a bid to woo UK's ethnic voters ahead of the next month's election, Premier David Cameron today said that Britain's first black or Asian prime minister will be from the Conservative party.

Cameron, who is the leader of the Conservative party, has been working on attracting Indian and other ethnic minority voters in the lead up to the May 7 General Election.

"We are the first party to have a female prime minister ( Margaret Thatcher 1970s), we were the party of the first Jewish prime minister ( Benjamin Disraeli 1870s) and I know one day, we are going to be the party of the first black or Asian prime minister," he said during a speech on equal opportunities in south London.

"In the last Parliament, we increased our number of black and Asian MPs from two to 11. At this election, there is one party fielding more black and ethnic minority candidates than any other - the Conservatives," he said.

Historically, ethnic minorities have been seen to favour the Opposition Labour party.

In the last 2010 General Election, of the 306 Conservative or Tory MPs elected, 11 were black or Asian and Labour had 16 ethnic minority MPs elected in 2010, while coalition partners Liberal Democrats had none.

In 2015, the Tories are fielding 56 candidates from black and Asian communities and Labour is fielding 52 ethnic minority candidates.

Cameron, who is seeking re-election as PM, also pledged to boost minority ethnic jobs, university places and police recruits by 2020.

Cameron added that he wanted to see "ambitious but realistic" targets for black and Asian people - pledging 20 per cent increases by 2020 in the number of jobs, apprenticeships, university places, start-up business loans and police officer recruits from ethnic minorities.

In the armed forces, he pledged an increase of at least 10 per cent "on the way to 20 per cent".

His speech came a day after the Conservative Friends of India wing of his party launched a Bollywood style campaign song in Hindi titled 'Neela Hai Aasman (Blue Sky)' for him.

Labour Leader Ed Miliband launched his party's black, Asian and ethnic minority manifesto earlier this month, suggesting quotas could be used to increase the number of non-white and working class people in top jobs, including senior civil servants and the judiciary.

A non-partisan campaign group, Operation Black Vote, has concluded that there will be 70 per cent more seats where black and Asian voters could decide the outcome in May this year than there were in the last election in 2010.

With the election just over a week away, all parties are re-doubling their efforts to attract these crucial votes.