May 2nd, a week ago yesterday, there were municipal elections all over the U.K. For a sign of things to come, it was the Muslim vote that everyone was talking about.
A little background here. As in the USA, British politics is dominated by two big old parties that millions of voters adhere to either from dumb loyalty or from conviction that none of the smaller parties is likely to win enough seats to form a government, so best pick the lesser of two evils.
The Conservative Party, aka the Tories, have held power, although sometimes in coalition, for most of the past fourteen years. They have accomplished basically nothing and their voter base is seriously fed up with them. Under Britain’s constitution there has to be a general election in the next few months; the Tories look set fair for a major defeat.
The other big party, the Labour Party, is looking good by default, although they ran out of constructive ideas a generation ago. They have always taken an easier line than the Tories on immigration: the great immigration surge from 1997 to 2007 was supervised by Tony Blair’s Labour government. Because of that Labour has been getting a disproportionate share of the immigrant vote.
Well: in these May 2nd elections the Muslims did well. Sadiq Khan, a Muslim supremacist, easily won a third term as Mayor of London, the first person ever to do so. Muslims got elected to municipal council seats all over, at least one of them celebrating his victory with a hearty "Allahu akbar!"
Let me introduce you to the new councillor in Leeds.
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) May 4, 2024
Nobody dare say we didn't warn you all. pic.twitter.com/ZLTIHo3zHw
These were more Muslim victories than Labour victories, though. A lot of the Muslim victors had stood as independents, unhappy with the Labour Party’s lack of enthusiasm for Hamas.
Sample quote from BBC News, May 3rd. This concerns Bradford, a big city in the North of England. edited quote:
Labour has retained control of Bradford City Council, with a large number of young independents also winning seats.
Independent candidates now hold the same number of seats as the Conservatives, with both having 13 elected members.
Labour suffered four net losses …
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the success of independent candidates in many of Bradford’s inner-city wards was due to dissatisfaction with how the national Labour Party has handled the war in Gaza.
Among those successful candidates were three young people—Mohammed Ali Islam, 20, Ismail Uddin,19, and 18-year-old Atira Malik …
They were met with cheering crowds outside, with Mohammed Ali Islam carried out of the election count on the shoulders of supporters.
Labour hold Bradford amid success for independents
by Aisha Iqbal, BBC News, May 3, 2024
Newsweek magazine drew the obvious lesson for Joe Biden.
Edited quote from them, May 3rd:
President Joe Biden may be looking across the Atlantic with trepidation as Britain’s Labour Party suffers heavy losses among Muslim voters across the country …
With millions of votes still to be counted, Labour has already been found to have lost scores of votes in areas with significant Muslim populations, with the BBC reporting that the party’s vote is down 8 percent compared to last year in wards where more than one in 10 residents identify as Muslim. The falling Muslim support is seen as a direct response to how Labour and its leader, Keir Starmer, reacted to Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.
So the Muslim vote, there and here, is significant. Stick around a decade or two: it’ll be crucial.
