Lord Ashcroft poll: 45 Years After "Rivers of Blood", Most Ethnic Minorities Have Never Heard of Enoch Powell

LONDON, April 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Most ethnic minority voters have never heard of Enoch Powell, according to a poll conducted by Lord Ashcroft 45 years after the "rivers of blood" speech.

However, while 51% of minority voters interviewed said they had not heard of Powell, nearly two thirds (64%) of black Caribbean respondents said they knew who he was and what he said.

Powell delivered the notorious speech in Birmingham on 20 April 1968.

Lord Ashcroft polled 1,035 adults from ethnic minorities between 15 March and 22 April. A separate nationally representative survey was conducted between 12 and 14 April. The research also found:

• Nine in ten of both the ethnic minority and general population say Britain has become a multicultural country. While 91% of minority voters say they are in favour of multiculturalism, only 70% of the general population agree. UKIP voters are the only group among whom a majority say they are not in favour of multiculturalism.
• 80% of black voters, but only 64% of those from an Asian background (and only 51% of Sikhs) think that "on the whole, immigration has been a good thing for the country". This compares to 54% of the population as a whole.
• Most minority voters (61%) think that "the different ethnic groups that make up this country get on well", compared to only 43% of the population as a whole (and only 30% of UKIP voters).
• Only 38% of black Caribbean voters think the Conservatives support multiculturalism (though 44% think this of David Cameron). However, nearly two thirds of Hindus think the Tories support multiculturalism (and three quarters think it true of Cameron). UKIP voters (73%) were much more likely than voters as a whole (54%) to think the Conservative Party supported multiculturalism.
• Keith Vaz is the best known politician from an ethnic or religious minority (though only 10% named him spontaneously, and more than half could not name any). Sayeeda Warsi was second, followed by Diane Abbott, and Ed Miliband. George Galloway was fifth.
• Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims are more likely than the population as a whole to think that "if you work hard, it is possible to be very successful in Britain no matter what your background".

In his commentary on the results, to be published on Conservative Home on Friday 19 April, Lord Ashcroft says:

"Only 16% of ethnic minority voters supported us at the last election. As I argued in Degrees of Separation [his research among ethnic minority voters published in 2012] we must do better than this - both because we should be a party for the whole country, and because we will find it increasingly difficult to win a majority without them. There is no doubt that in 2010 this situation cost us seats".

Notes to Editors

1. 1,035 adults from ethnic minorities were interviewed by telephone between 22 March and 15 April 2013. The sample included 169 participants of Black Caribbean background, 154 Black African, 501 Muslim, 150 Hindu, and 100 Sikh.

A separate survey of 1,002 adults was conducted by telephone between 12 and 14 April 2013; results have been weighted to be politically representative of all adults in Great Britain. Full poll tables will be available at LordAshcroftPolls.com on Friday 19 April.

2. Lord Ashcroft KCMG PC is an international businessman, author and philanthropist. He is founder and Chairman of the Board of Crimestoppers, a member of the Board of the Imperial War Museum and a Trustee of the Imperial War Museum Foundation, Chairman of the Trustees of Ashcroft Technology Academy, Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University and Treasurer of the International Democrat Union. From 2005 to 2010 he was Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.

3. His political books and research papers include Smell The Coffee (2005), Minority Verdict (2010), Project Blueprint (2011 & 2012), The Leadership Factor (2011), Degrees of Separation (2012), The Armed Forces & Society (2012), Blue Collar Tories (2012), Project Red Alert (2012), They're Thinking What We're Thinking: Understanding The UKIP Temptation (2012), and What Are The Liberal Democrats For? (2013).

4. Full details of Lord Ashcroft's polling and commentary can be found at LordAshcroftPolls.com, where you can also sign up for news alerts. Follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft

View the poll: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/prne/operations/Ethnic_Minority_Voters_poll_summary-April_2013.pdf