But not in the Neo-Liberal way that you think
Earlier this month when Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson resigned after the mass exodus of his cabinet, murmurs of Sunak's status as the next Tory leader began. Now with only three candidates left, and Sunak being the front-runner, it is highly probable that the former chancellor will be moving into No.10. Throughout the race, it is interesting to see the publics' divided opinion on Sunak’s possible new promotion following his families tax evasion scandal earlier in the year. Many are, rightly so, disappointed with the choice of the new Conservative leader.
Image -Sky News
However, on TikTok, despite political alignment, there is growing support for Sunak as the first non-white Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This stride into equality is all a façade; deportations will still occur, children will still be living on the breadline, those from minority backgrounds will still suffer, and the mega-rich will still come out on top. Sunak being from a South Asian background may provide representation for people from his background to get into politics, however, it does not much else for the current state of the UK, and after all, he is a Conservative.
Image - Sky News
Nevertheless, Sunak’s ethnic background is important for another reason, this being the sinking ship theory. A large majority of the Conservative leadership candidates were of South Asian descent, along with four women, and Badenoch being both a woman and a minority ethnic group. This year the Tory leadership campaign was pretty diverse, but why? The Sinking Ship theory also known as the Glass Cliff is the phenomenon in which women and minority groups are placed leadership roles when the risk of failure is highest. When these people inevitably fail, their gender/race is brought up as one of the reasons that they did. This theory can also be applied to companies in need to be seen as more diverse, and then to have a foreseeable scapegoat when the ‘ship sinks’. A prime example of this is in 2016 when Theresa May became leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister shortly after a referendum result to leave the EU that caused the pound to drop in value to levels not seen in 30+ years.
Image - The Guardian
This theory is disputed by many who believe that the decision to put these minority groups into roles of this nature has nothing to do with their gender or race. However, a 2007 study found that female news consumers in the United Kingdom were likelier than male ones to accept that the glass cliff exists and is dangerous and unfair to women executives this also applies to those from non-white backgrounds. Cook and Glass’ analysed promotion patterns at Fortune 500 companies over a 15-year timespan and saw that – compared to white men – white women, and both men and women of colour were more likely to be appointed as CEO in struggling firms. (BBC, 2022) Its is clear that there is an unusual pattern in the promotion of non-white people and women.
According to Haslam, acknowledging the biases that those in leadership may have, and then providing education around those topics is a good first step. When all is said and done, if Sunak does fail as Prime Minister, the UK need not blame his race, but his character, his party and his lack of compassion for those with less. The same goes for Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt.
Image- The Telegraph
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