The 2022 Conservative leadership campaign and post-racial gatekeeping

Abstract

The UK Conservative Party leadership contest that took place in the summer of 2022 was unprecedented for, among other things, its level of ethnic diversity. This article argues that this does not indicate a sharp, contemporary liberal turn within the party. It argues the opposite, in fact, that recent senior ethnic minority cabinet members and leadership contenders represent some of the party’s most rightwing ideologues in years. Through critical discourse analysis of narrative related to race, borders, immigration and the ‘nation’ in selected media appearances made by ethnic minority leadership contenders Rishi Sunak, Sajid Javid, Nadhim Zahawi, Suella Braverman and Kemi Badenoch as part of their campaigns, this piece positions these individuals – in distinct yet interrelated ways – as ethnic minority post-racial gatekeepers, continuing yet intensifying a long trend within the Conservative Party of the reproduction of the racial status quo legitimised through nominal ethnic minority representation.