Independent candidates running on pro-Gaza platforms have taken some of Labour’s former strongholds. While this was a night of victory for Labour, seeing the party win in a landslide, constituencies with a high proportion of Muslim voters did not perform as well. Overall, the party’s vote went down on average by 23 points in seats where over 20% of the population identified as Muslim.
In one of the major upsets of the night, shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth lost his Leicester South seat, which had previously had a majority of over 22,000. In nearby Leicester East, the Conservatives benefitted from the large number of independent candidates stealing several thousand votes, particularly Claudia Webbe, the area’s former Labour MP, who has been an active pro-Palestinian campaigner.
Overall, Labour has lost five seats with large Muslim populations, with four going to independent candidates and one to the Conservatives. One of the winning independent candidates, Shockat Adam, declared “this is for Gaza” after he won the Leicester South seat by 979 votes.
In Birmingham Perry Barr, Labour’s Khalid Mahmood also lost to independent candidate Ayoub Khan by a mere 507 votes. Meanwhile, other independent candidates who campaigned on the conflict in Gaza won the Dewsbury and Batley constituencies, as well as Blackburn, which both previously had healthy Labour majorities.
The newly elected Labour MP for Coventry South, Zarah Sultana, said that her party’s stance on Gaza had been a “stain on its record” and, while the party had “moved in the right direction”, it “took a long time to get there”. David Lammy, who could become Labour’s foreign secretary, said that his party would “work with partners to seek Palestinian recognition” while in power.
Labour peer Ayesha Hazarika warned that analysts should be “slightly careful” about “lumping everyone from a Muslim background into having the same view”. She added that “other local community politics” could also be at play in some areas, beyond Gaza.
While the party did manage to win back the Rochdale constituency from George Galloway, Labour has faced growing pressure over its stance on the conflict since Israel launched a military campaign in response to Hamas’s attack on 7 October. In February, Labour called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza but critics argued that the party had been slow to reach that position.
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