Replication Data for: The end of the ethnic bloc vote? Ethnic minority Leavers after the Brexit referendum

Brexit has reshaped British electoral politics, but little attention has been paid to the post-referendum politics of the roughly 1 million ethnic minorities who voted for Leave. This is an important omission; ethnic minority support for Brexit was higher than expected despite the Leave side mobilising white ethnocentric voters, and the cross-ethnic appeal of the Leave campaign allowed it to distinguish itself from other purely anti-immigrant political projects. We show that realignment of minority voters in the 2019 general election was limited among minorities, despite the high salience of Brexit. Using semi-structured interview data, we find that both Conservative and Labour Leavers agreed that racism is a problem, but those who voted Conservative in 2019 saw it as less relevant to politics, prioritising Brexit instead. Labour Leavers on the other hand described themselves as habitual Labour supporters, explaining their vote with reference to Labour’s perceived position of the party of ordinary people, understood as working class and ethnic minority voters. These results demonstrate that while the 2016 vote managed to defy accusations of being an ethnocentric project unacceptable to ethnic minorities, 2019 Conservatives fell victim of the ethnocentric focus of their campaign and failed to benefit from a substantial amount of support for Brexit among minorities.

英国脱欧（Brexit）重塑了英国选举政治格局，但针对约100万投脱欧票的少数族裔在公投后的政治动向的研究却寥寥无几。这一研究疏漏不容忽视：尽管脱欧阵营主要动员具有族群中心主义倾向的白人选民，但少数族裔对脱欧的支持率仍超出预期；同时脱欧竞选活动的跨族群吸引力，使其得以区别于其他纯粹反移民的政治纲领。我们的研究表明，尽管英国脱欧在2019年英国大选中受关注度极高，但少数族裔选民的阵营重组幅度仍十分有限。借助半结构化访谈（semi-structured interview）数据，我们发现：2016年投脱欧票的保守党支持者与工党支持者均认同种族主义是一项社会问题，但2019年仍将选票投向保守党的受访者认为种族主义与政治的关联度较低，转而将脱欧作为首要考量议题。与之相对，投脱欧票的工党支持者则称自己向来是工党忠实选民，将选票投向工党归因于该党被视作代表普通民众——即工人阶级与少数族裔选民——的政党形象。上述研究结果表明：尽管2016年脱欧公投成功驳斥了“脱欧是一项少数族裔无法接受的族群中心主义政治行动”的指控，但2019年保守党竞选团队却因自身的族群中心主义导向沦为牺牲品，未能从少数族裔群体中可观的脱欧支持率中获益。