The successful Muslim Vote campaign is a snapshot of the future of British politics

Much of the focus on the 2024 general election will be on Labour’s landslide, the impressive Liberal Democrat performance, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage finally entering the House of Commons. But the victories for a string of pro-Gaza independents should not be ignored.

While Left-wing maverick and leader of the Workers Party of Britain George Galloway failed to win in Rochdale, pro-Gaza independents elected include former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North, Ayoub Khan in Birmingham Perry Barr, Adnan Hussain in Blackburn, Iqbal Mohamed in Dewsbury and Batley, and Shockat Adam in Leicester South (where Labour heavyweight Jonathan Ashworth was defeated). Pro-Gaza independent Leanne Mohamad nearly pulled off an astonishing win in Ilford North, where Wes Streeting now has a majority of just 528 votes.

The political movement of pro-Gaza independents was seriously underestimated in the build-up to the general election – most of all, by the Labour Party itself. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise. YouGov polling ahead of the general election found that Labour Party support among British Pakistanis and Bangladeshis – two Sunni-dominant ethnic groups – had dropped to under half (44 per cent). In the era of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, this was in the region of 90 per cent. More than two in five identified the ongoing Israel-Gaza situation as one of the most important issues to them in deciding how they would vote in the general election – 41 per cent. To put it in perspective, this dropped to 5 per cent across the British public.

It is clear as day that Sir Keir Starmer’s positioning on Gaza has hurt Labour in its Muslim-heavy heartlands. The Labour leader specifically referring to Bangladesh in the context of illegal migration during an interview with The Sun provided an additional layer of anti-Labour hostility within British-Bangladeshi communities.

The Muslim Vote campaign, which sought to help mobilise Britain’s Muslim voters around ongoing developments in the Middle East, provides a snapshot of the future of British politics in certain parts of the country. Some will argue that the election of pro-Gaza independents is a much-needed re-invigoration of British democracy and a blow to the instinctively pro-Israel political establishment. But can all this truly be considered a victory for integration in modern Britain?

Labour is being hoisted by its own petard. For years, it has indulged in Muslim religious identity politics based on both domestic and foreign-policy grievances based on Palestine and Kashmir. They have shown pro-Gaza independents the way to go about electoral business in parts of cities such as London, Birmingham, and Leicester, as well as a string of northern industrial towns – from Blackburn in Lancashire to Dewsbury in Yorkshire. Now, they are getting a little taste of their own identitarian medicine.

Labour have won a massive majority – but it is a thin one and many British Muslim voters have given their so-called “natural party” a major headache.