Labor Birthday Party wins UK elections, Starmer becomes top minister: Live updates and impact

Many British Muslims, as well as Alternative voters, had demanded that party leaders more vocally condemn the rising deaths and deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and wanted the unelected government to press Israel to achieve an immediate ceasefire with Hamas and Apply more pressure. ,

In Britain’s agricultural areas with large Muslim populations, Labor suffered impressive losses in the May local elections. The issue also contributed to the Labor Party’s surprise defeat in a special election last fall.

Before the vote, experts said the debate was mainly about domestic issues, and said the war in Gaza was unlikely to result in the accumulation of massive remains. However, Paul Whiteley, an instructor in government at Essex College, said that for some supporters, Labour’s stance at times felt akin to its anti-colonial roots.

He said, “The war in Gaza clearly conflicts with Labour’s historic commitment to anti-colonialism.” “What’s happened now is that sympathy for the Palestinians has grown, and concerns about Israel’s behavior have grown in the party.”

Since becoming Labor leader in 2020, Mr Starmer has worked hard to distance the party from past allegations of anti-Semitism within the party’s hard-left, including ousting the party’s previous leader Jeremy Corbyn. Mr Starmer largely scaled back the Conservative government’s support for Israel, following the attacks that followed the Hamas-led Israeli invasion of Gaza on 7 October.

By February, amid thousands of civilian deaths and labor turmoil in Gaza, Mr Starmer had begun to make strides towards advocating an immediate ceasefire. A few weeks later, the conservatives also supported a US-backed proposal to immediately stop fighting in Gaza and reduce the number of hostages.

Mr Starmer’s progress could be traced back to some people who were too little, too late. It cost Labor a parliamentary seat in Rochdale, in northern England, where George Galloway, a hard-left firebrand, won a special election the following February by appealing to Muslim voters, who make up about 30 percent of the electorate there. . Several party MPs also left policy roles in protest against the party’s stance on Gaza.

Mr Starmer is seeking to reassure the left wing of his party by saying in May that he is committed to establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, but this must happen as part of a peace process with Israel. It’s a generally similar approach as both the Conservative-led government and the Biden administration have resisted calls for either one to unilaterally accept Palestinian statehood, as have three European countries seeking to close the AGE Did it for.

Ahead of the general election, labor activists campaigned, apart from a group in largely Muslim farms.

In the month of the election in the Tower Hamlets area of ​​east London, where almost 40 percent of the population described themselves as Muslim in the 2021 census, a campaign truck in front of a Whitechapel polling station repeatedly played a recording saying, “Voting Labor Massacre.” Is voting for.”

In front of Altab Ali Teren – named after a young Bangladeshi man who was killed by racists in 1978 – Omar Zahid said he planned to vote for a major candidate after voting for the Labor Party all year . He cited a number of reasons, including Mr Starmer’s latest comments about Bangladeshi immigrants, but also said his local Labor MLA Rushnara Ali had disappointed him with her voting record on the war in Gaza .

“I sent them an email as a concerned constituent and I got a generic response,” said Mr Zahid, a research fellow at the World Coverage Institute. “Then when we got her voting record, she stayed away from the cease-fire and voted against the other four resolutions.”

Ms. Ali could not be reached for comment, but she said in a recent comment on social media, “I have been fighting for the Palestinian cause and will always fight.” She managed to secure her seat directly in her constituency with 34.1 percent of the votes, which was down from 39.4 percent in the previous election. However, his rival, a sovereign, received 30.5 percent of the vote.

Across England and Wales, about 6.5 percent of the population identified as Muslim, according to the 2021 census. There is no united “Muslim vote” in the future – personal tastes are increasingly fractured across generations, regions and more – according to Professor Whiteley, 80 per cent of Muslim voters nationally voted for Labor in the last election.

Some activists have made efforts to strengthen the voting pool. Muslim Vote, a Sovereign Advocacy Taskforce A list of applicants solicited Muslim voters emerged, pushing for a range of policies, including a ceasefire in Gaza and recognition of a Palestinian state.

However, analysts say that Britain’s stance on Gaza is unlikely to change significantly with the Labor Party joining the federal government.

Professor Whiteley said of Labor and Conservative incumbents, “They’re really singing the same hymn – they’re not divided on this.” “That is why the current policy will probably continue under the next government.”

joel peterson Contributed to the reporting.