Pro-Gaza Vote Wins as Many Seats as Farage

London: It was lucky Labour enjoyed a landslide, because a big chunk of its core Muslim voter base chose to back pro-Palestinian independent candidates instead.

Areas with significant Muslim populations saw a dip in support for Labour, with four independent candidates elected to parliament running on a pure pro-Gaza ticket – as many seats as were won by the Greens and one behind Nigel Farage’s (inset) Reform Party. The pro-Gaza vote added its fifth MP, taking it equal to Reform, with Jeremy Corbyn. The former Labour leader won as an independent after being barred from Labour for his handling of claims of anti-Semitism within the party. Several other seats were dramatically affected by the Muslim protest vote.

Zarah Sultana, a Labour MP who was re-elected, said the party had “clearly lost support in parts of the country because of its position on Gaza”.

About four in five UK Muslims voted Labour in 2019, reinforcing the historic links that were forged after the mass migration of workers from Pakistan in the 1950s and 1960s.

However, in seats where Muslims make up over a quarter of the population, the Labour vote has decreased by 23 per cent this time.

A campaign called “The Muslim Vote” backed dozens of independent and other candidates it deemed as supporting Muslim interests.

Jonathan Ashworth, who was set to become a minister under Starmer, lost his seat to Shockat Adam, who declared: “This is for Gaza” after his win, waving a keffiyeh, the symbolic Palestinian scarf.

Ashworth had held the Leicester South seat, which has a 30 per cent ­Muslim population, for over a decade.

In several other seats considered safe for Labour, the party’s candidates narrowly clung on and in one case, a Conservative won because it cost Labour so many votes.

Aghileh Djafari-Marbini is a charity worker from London who campaigned for a Muslim candidate: “If I was a Labour Party strategist now … having done all the celebrations, I would be scared of this landscape that’s developing”.