Many Tories and non – Tories alike, frequently ask, why don’t ethnic minorities especially those of African origin feel at home in our party, the Conservative Party? The party of family values, community support, unity, aspiration, self-reliance, enterprising, personal responsibility and private charity, because these are the same values most members of these groups and their families subscribe to and believe in.

The Answer is simple and far more straightforward than Enoch Powell’s Ghost or Conservatives not relating to immigrants and people of colour or low representation of black and ethnic minorities in the party. All these reasons are excuses deployed by the left to undermined conservatism and buy the affection of that segment of our society. Nonetheless, they are not the reasons why many blacks and ethnics are not Tories.

Whenever I speak with members of this group they never deny for one second that the Conservative party is their natural home yet they complain that they never feel at home. Not because we are too posh, too white, too rich or too educated, but because we are not consistent enough.

According to them, we have conversations about issues that matter to them but they come far and few between. We also open dialogues and prioritize topics but soon let them drop to a lower priority. In other words, we need to be consistent, and in some cases even persistent. Our courting needs to go beyond the ice breaker and the meet & greet, it needs to move towards building a more cohesive foundation and a sound relationship.

We must also remember, this is an intelligent and resilient group, and although they require consistency they don’t need to be handled with kid gloves or to be treated differently. Contrary to what the left tries to make them out to be, they don’t need special measures, handouts and exclusivity, all that does is undermined their integrity and diminish them. What they truly crave is to be heard and listened to, included in the process and allowed to become truly equal – no special selections or preferred treatment – just equal!

As for what some Tories did and said in the past – that is just that, the past, what counts is what everyone is doing and saying today and planning to do in the future. There is no need for any apologies, the past is history, our history and we should all learn from it, good or bad.