Pollsters are busily reassuring election candidates after Labour lost a third of its vote in Muslim-majority areas because of Gaza.

In the local elections earlier this month, the Labour vote collapsed by 33 per cent in areas with mostly Muslim residents.

In council wards where more than 70 per cent of the population were Muslim, Labour lost 39 per cent of its vote share.

In several of these contests, independent candidates took large proportions of the vote away from all the mainstream parties – with campaigns focusing heavily on the genocide in Gaza.

And some of these independents are preparing to challenge the big parties in the general election.

So Akhmed Yakoob, who received 70,000 votes in the West Midlands mayoral contest, is hoping to take Birmingham Ladywood from Labour’s Shabana Mahmood.

Stop there.

If Mr Yakoob had 70,000 votes, who won – and by what margin?

Well, Labour – as expected. But by just 1,500 votes, ahead of the Conservative. Mr Yakoob came third, albeit a considerable distance behind.

But if just a small proportion of votes had gone his way, there could have been a considerable upset.

And this is with practically no media coverage at all.

Now ask yourself what these independents might do, armed with the knowledge that they won’t get any help from the mainstream media and taking such compensatory action as they consider appropriate.

And remember that some of the seats they are targeting are currently occupied by some very high-profile MPs.

In Ilford North, British-Palestinian activist Leanne Mohamad is running against Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting.

Or how about in Holborn & St Pancras, where Andrew Feinstein (see featured image) – who has a certain amount of celebrity himself – will challenge the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, himself?

Both Labour and the Tories backed Israel’s war in Gaza, although Labour has since called for a ceasefire on terms that would have been extremely favourable to Israel.

contrast this with the will of the UK’s population, as checked by pollsters YouGov, who found that more than two-thirds of British people want a ceasefire in Gaza. British people were also significantly more likely to sympathise with the Palestinian side compared to the Israelis.

YouGov researchers also found that a majority of people in the country want a ban on the sale of weapons to Israel.

You can see that both Labour and the Tories are badly out of touch with public opinion.

But pollsters think the independents aren’t going to significantly affect the election because they’re in areas that are predominantly Labour?

I think any Labour politician taking heart from such claims is hopelessly optimistic – with an accent on the “hopelessly”.

Source: UK: Labour vote share in Muslim-majority areas ‘down by one third’ | Middle East Eye

---

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/

6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical

7) Feel free to comment!

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
Cruel Britannia is available
in either print or eBook format here:

The Livingstone Presumption is available
in either print or eBook format here:

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here: