By Isa Seedat
A landslide is the only appropriate way to describe Labour‘s victory in the 2024 UK General Election. Having won 412 seats, the Labour Party secured a whopping 172-seat majority in Parliament. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party fell to a record low of 121 seats, effectively relegating them to the sidelines of political relevance whilst they seek to resolve their internal issues. However, the results of the election are less binary than they first appear.
Labour's landslide conceals a massive decline in support for the party amongst a traditionally reliable voter base — British Muslims.
British Muslims have increasingly felt betrayed by the position the Labour Party has taken regarding the conflict in Gaza. For example, in November 2023, Labour instructed its MPs to abstain from an SNP motion in Parliament that called for an immediate ceasefire, a motion many Muslims supported.
"On July 4, British Muslims took their chance to teach Labour a sobering lesson."
Even more infamously, in an interview in October 2023, Sir Keir Starmer seemed to suggest that Israel had the right to withhold power and water from Gaza. While Starmer would fervently argue those words have been misinterpreted he should be acutely aware that in politics perception matters.
Indeed, even though Labour did call for a humanitarian ceasefire in February of this year, for many this was too little too late. The optics, whether right or wrong, certainly appear as though Labour only instituted a change in its stance because of the backlash it had received rather than on principle.
Many have sought to justify the position taken by Labour regarding the conflict in Gaza. These voices emphasise the work Labour had to do to win back the trust of the Jewish community which had been lost under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Certainly, it was right for Starmer to target antisemitism in the party, but criticism of Israel is not equivalent to anti-semitism as Labour has seemed to assume.
Starmer’s resulting obfuscation on Gaza and the morality of Israel’s actions has led to a sense amongst Muslim voters that the Labour Party does not care about Gaza or the plight of the Palestinian people.
This disenfranchisement coupled with the widespread knowledge that the Conservatives were heading for a historic wipeout left many British Muslims feeling that the election was a chance to officially put Gaza on the ballot and have their voices heard.
On July 4, British Muslims took their chance to teach Labour a sobering lesson.
In the traditional Labour stronghold of Leicester South, the incumbent Labour candidate and Shadow Paymaster General, Jon Ashworth, was unseated by independent candidate Shockat Adam. In his victory speech, Adam explicitly noted that his victory was ‘for Gaza‘.
Labour lost another 3 seats in constituencies with large Muslim populations to independent candidates.
Meanwhile, in other constituencies like Bradford West and Bethnal Green and Stepney, Labour candidates were able to hold on but with vastly reduced majorities.
In Ilford North, now Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, came very close to losing his seat to independent candidate Leanne Mohamad. Ilford North is a seat where the Labour candidate should be weighing not counting their majority. But in this case, Streeting‘s was cut from 9000 to just 528 votes. This contest epitomises the disenfranchisement of British Muslims with the Labour Party.
British Muslims make up 6.5% of the population of England and Wales and the Labour Party is taking their support for granted to its own detriment. Labour is right to be happy with the majority it secured but the unseating of Labour candidates and the slashing of Labour majorities in traditional Labour strongholds ought to act as a warning for the party.
For many, Gaza was on the ballot at this election. If Labour fails to heed the lessons that British Muslims have sought to teach them, they may be in for further nasty electoral bites in the future.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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