Muslim campaign group urges united alliance for future UK elections

July 11, 2024
Collected
  • Muslim group calls for united election alliance in UK

To confront the Labour administration in upcoming elections, a Muslim electoral campaign group has called for a political coalition between independent groups and left-wing parties like the Green Party.

After Israel's war on Gaza began, The Muslim Vote (TMV) gained notoriety and set out to discredit Labour for its leadership's early backing of Israel's military operation, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 38,000 Palestinians.

There were five independent candidates backed by TMV who won seats in the British parliament during the general election held on 4 July.

The group, however, identified six seats in which vote splitting between candidates with similar platforms allowed Labour to win seats: Ilford North, Bethnal Green and Bow, Birmingham Yardley, Birmingham Ladywood, Birmingham Hodge Hill, and Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley.

The most dramatic of these was the Ilford North race, where independent British-Palestinian candidate Leanne Mohamad came within 528 votes of costing Labour's Wes Streeting his seat. Streeting is now health minister.

In Bethnal Green and Stepney, independent candidate Ajmal Masroor came second, just 1,689 votes short of winning.

TMV's main aim appears to be the inclusion of the Green Party of England and Wales in a possible electoral alliance.

The Greens won four seats and campaigned on an environmentalist, anti-war and pro-Palestine platform.

"If we look at the rise of the Green Party for example - we can see that in the 40 constituencies where they came second - 22 of those constituencies have a population of over 10 percent Muslims. Muslim voters will be vital to the Greens," TMV posted on X.

Supporters of Mohamad's campaign have reasoned that in Ilford North, much of the 1,794 votes Green candidate Rachel Collinson picked up may have helped tilt the race in the candidate's favour.

In Masroor’s constituency, the Green party secured 6,391 votes.

The example of the left-wing alliance formed by La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Melenchon which also included the Green party of France has increased talk of a similar movement forming in the UK.

In France's most recent general election, also held in July, the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition won most seats, challenging both President Emmanuel Macron's centrist Rennaisance bloc and the far-right National Front bloc, which is led by Marine Le Pen.