WARRINGTON South is one of almost 100 constituencies where the “black vote” could significantly influence who wins the seat in next week’s General Election.
This is according to research carried out by Operation Black Vote (OBV) which suggests that the black and ethnic minority is more important than it has ever been before.
OBV claims to be a non-profit, non-partisan political campaigning organisation which aims to increase the number of black and ethnic minority people who vote.
They claim Warrington South – held by the Conservatives with a 2,750 majority at the 2015 election – has a black and ethnic minority (BME) population of 3,587.
In fact, seven of the top 10 swing seats have BME electorates significantly larger than the 2015 majority, 45 of the top 50 swing seats have BME electorates larger than the 2015 majority and 96 of the top 200 marginal seats have BME electorates large enough to make the difference, they claim..
Simon Woolley, director of OBV, said: “As the gap between the two main parties closes the fight for the marginal seats becomes even more critical.
“It’s clear that the party leaders know that the BME vote in the majority of the most hotly contested seats could be the deciding factor. All three leaders have either written a race equality manifesto or statement in their attempt to woo the Black vote.
“The Saatchi & Saatchi campaign ‘blacksdontvote, but if we did’ is now making a profound effect on this election.”
2015 General Election figures (omitting parties not contesting the seat next week) Conservative 25,928; Labour: 23,178; Liberal Democrat 3,335.
