Discrimination by Other Means: Further Restrictions on Migrant Women and Children Under the Conservatives

Abstract

As demonstrated in earlier chapters, the issues of race and immigration were contentious in the 1979 general election, with the tone of the election essentially set by Margaret Thatcher’s interview with World in Action in early 1978, in which she claimed that ‘white’ British people were feeling ‘rather swamped’ by non-white migrants (see Chapter 2). Labour was rocked by the virginity testing controversy and the subsequent revelations about the X-rays conducted on South Asian children but was also very concerned about the publicity given to the National Front and its racist agenda. The Conservatives were able to capitalise on Labour’s problems, and Thatcher’s tough stance allowed her party to siphon off some of the less committed National Front vote, while the Tories campaigned that under a Conservative government non-EEC migration would be further restricted.