Labour took Muslim voters for granted – and we made them pay in these seats

The main headline of the night will almost certainly be that Labour landslide – closely followed by an alarming rise in rightwing populism signalled by Reform looking like the main opposition party in many constituencies. 

But there is another major takeaway from the election results that have almost finished trickling in – Labour has been punished for their stance on Gaza. Badly.

In four seats, pro Gaza MPs have taken victory over Labour, often overturning massive majorities: in Birmingham Perry Barr, Labour’s Khalid Mahmood lost to independent Ayoub Khan by 507 votes. 

In Leicester South, independent Shockat Adam took the seat from shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth by 979 votes, declaring ‘this is for Gaza’ as his victory was declared. Ashworth had previously had a majority of over 20,000.

Jeremy Corbyn, longstanding advocate for the Palestinian cause, held his seat of Islington despite being deselected by the Labour party, while independents who campaigned on Gaza defeated Keir Starmer’s party in Dewsbury and Batley, as well as Blackburn. 

Overall, I’ve been left with mixed feelings. I’m torn between elation at the Tory defeat and sheer apathy at the victory of a party that seems to care so little about people like me. But these results give me hope.

Of course, Labour was always going to win a landslide, and amidst a blanket of red emerging over the country, it’s difficult to see four or five MPs as a massive success story. 

But the fact is, overnight our political system has shifted dramatically and the chokehold the two party duopoly has had over our democracy has been shattered.

Yes, we have seen this through the frankly horrifying success of Reform, but its also clear by looking at how close Labour came to losing many of its formerly safe seats – especially those in Muslim areas.

Wes Streeting – soon to be health secretary and for many, a mascot of the very Starmerite politics that has alienated Muslim voters like me – clung onto his seat by only 500 votes. 

For Leanne Mohamad, his independent opponent, the granddaughter of Palestinian refugees, to come so close to unseating one of the nation’s leading political figures is not only unprecedented but also cements the sheer anger within my community towards Labour.

Labour safe seats have become battlegrounds and as communities mobilise with time, this effect will only grow.

Keir Starmer’s own seat of Holborn and St Pancras even saw a long-term activist for Palestine, Andrew Feinstein, come in second place with over 7,000 votes.

Every Muslim I know was mobilising against Labour in their constituencies for this election – whether through canvassing, campaigning or using social media to spread the word.

After Starmer was asked on LBC Radio if ‘cutting off power [and] cutting off water’ during a siege in Gaza was appropriate, he replied that ‘Israel does have that right’ — despite this constituting a war crime, according to UN experts (something he has since, unconvincingly, attempted to retract) – he has been etched into the mind of British Muslims like me who are traumatised from watching war crimes streamed live to our phones whilst our politicians continue to fund and support Israel.

What is clear from these results is that Labour has become an entirely untenable political home for many Muslim voters. 

Despite having voted Labour my entire life, this year I couldn’t morally justify it. It felt like not only a vote for a continuation of the Tory status quo but also, in a way, lending my support to the massacre of some of my own people.

Without a tenable independent candidate in my constituency, I voted Green for the first time because of their pro-immigration and pro-ceasefire stance.

MPs like Jess Phillips who quit the frontbench to vote for a Gaza ceasefire or Dawn Butler who has spoken out in support of Palestinians in the past still saw intense battles for their seats from local communities disillusioned with their ties to a party committed to supporting Israel.

While much of the media will focus on troubling rise of Reform, and while the country looks towards the ‘change’ Keir Starmer’s premiership will supposedly bring us (despite it sounding alarmingly like a continuation of the last 14 years of austerity), it’s important that we don’t overlook the ‘Gaza-effect’ on our political system. 

No doubt there will be those, like with the local and mayoral elections in May, who spin this into an alarming scourge of Islamism sweeping through British democracy – or, once again, accusing British Muslims of holding more loyalty to the Middle East than their own constituencies.

But in reality, what we have witnessed is a group of the electorate that was once taken for granted by Labour, utilising the democratic tools within our power as British citizens to make our voices heard.

British Muslim voters have spoken today by rallying around independent candidates who offer an alternative to the status quo.

Ultimately, in the face of a Labour landslide which could never have been abated given how much the Conservatives have decimated this country, this kind of outcome is the best that we could have anticipated as voters who care about standing up to power.

I hope that once the celebrations are done, the Labour party is forced to come to terms with the fact that the support of Muslim voters cannot be taken for granted – that you cannot be so weak on Gaza when tens of thousands are being killed and expect us to support you.

Many will see today as a day of hope with a change of government signalling an end to the utter bleakness of a decade and a half of Tory rule. 

However, I see it as a day of hope for a different reason. Muslim voters have shown that we have outgrown the need to rely on the ‘lesser of two evils’ philosophy. 

We have shown that there are members of our own communities who we can rally around who care about human rights, yes, but also understand the needs of the diverse areas they come from when it comes to housing, health, education and the cost of living. 

Unlike the two main parties – or, should I say, the three top parties of the popular vote – who choose to peddle hate, sell false promises and only offer more of the same, today this nation has elected at least five beacons of hope who can offer something genuinely transformational to politics.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.