Sayeeda Warsi Drives Tory Push for Support among Asians

October 16, 2007

Author: Staff Writer

Source: Yahoo!News

Wire Service: IANS

http://in.news.yahoo.com/071016/43/6lza1.html

Buoyed by higher ratings than Labour in recent opinion polls, the Conservative party hopes that the party will enlist more support from Britain's Asian community with the recent appointment of Sayeeda Warsi as the first Muslim in the shadow cabinet.

Warsi took her seat in the House of Lords Monday as Baroness Warsi of Dewsbury. She becomes the first Muslim to sit at cabinet level and the first female Muslim to sit for the Conservatives in the houses of parliament.

Earlier this year, party leader David Cameron turned up at a function in Leicester where Hindu spiritual leader Morari Bapu was reciting 'Ramkatha' (excerpts from Hindu epic Ramayana). The event, which attracted a large number of his followers from Leicester, other parts of Europe and the US, proved a major platform for Cameron to appeal for support from Britain's Hindu community.

At 36, Sayeeda is the youngest member of the Lords. In June, David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, appointed Warsi to the shadow cabinet as shadow minister for community cohesion.