Labour to be 'punished' by British Muslims following surge in pro-Gaza independents
Millions of Britons will head to the ballot box on Thursday for local elections across England.
Labour will be “punished” by British Muslims at the local elections following a surge of pro-Gaza independents in key councils, a think tank has said. Three in five Muslim voters in high-stakes councils will consider voting for independents to stop Labour winning, a poll for Policy Exchange has found. Half of the 1,025 Muslims polled would consider voting Green to stop Labour and 60% would consider independents.
Dr Rakib Ehsan, lead author of the Policy Exchange report, said: “The data shows that the Labour Party is on course to be further punished by British Muslims in the English local elections, with a likely surge of Muslim independent candidates being elected in cities such as Birmingham and towns like Blackburn, along with a number of London boroughs including Newham.
"The fresh polling also reveals that there are fundamental differences between the wider general population and British Muslims living in parts of England where problems over integration continue to persist. This is especially stark over the extent to which Israel-Gaza is prioritised as an issue when deciding how to vote in the forthcoming local elections.”
JL Partners, a member of the British Polling Council, surveyed British Muslims across areas where they live in significant numbers and elections are taking place, including all of Greater London, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire, as well as parts of Lancashire, South Yorkshire, and Merseyside.
Alongside this survey, a nationally representative survey of 1,025 UK adults was done.
British Muslims “overwhelmingly” prioritise their religious identity over their identity as British citizens, Police Exchange said.
Most (63%) ranked their religious identity as most important to them, compared to 12% who rank their Britishness as the most important – though 74% said that being British is important to them.
Muslims are five times more likely (25%) than the average Briton (5%) to say that the Israel-Gaza conflict will determine their vote.
A quarter of the British Muslims polled had a favourable view of Hamas (25%), with 28% holding an unfavourable one.
They were more likely to have a favourable view of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran (23%) than an unfavourable one (20%).
Hostility to Jews was also greater amongst Muslims, with 21% admitting that they feel unfavourably towards the Jews, compared to 11% of the general public.
Some 45% of Muslims believe that Jews have too much power over the media and 39% say they have too much power over Parliament, more than double the proportion in the country as a whole who share these beliefs.
Dr Ehsan said: “Among the British Muslims living in the polled areas, there are worrying levels of antisemitic conspiratorial beliefs and support for the criminalisation of blasphemy. The findings show that the UK is far from being a stable multi-faith democracy.”
