LONDON: The party’s stance on Gaza could have an impact on its performance in local elections in Britain, a senior Labor official has suggested.
A series of votes took place across the country this week to elect new mayors in several major cities, as well as council members and police and crime commissioners.
Labor was expected to perform strongly, but Labour’s national campaign co-ordinator Pat McFadden told Sky News that Gaza was “a factor in some places”, adding that “With so many innocent people killed I’m not surprised that people “The feelings are strong.” About that.”
Party sources suggested that turnout in key areas was lower than anticipated, with many Muslim voters choosing not to vote, including in a key election in the West Midlands, where a lack of support resulted in Labor losing the local mayoralty to the Conservative incumbent. Had to lose to Andy Street.
It comes just weeks after former Labor MP George Galloway was elected to represent the formerly safe Labor constituency of Rochdale in Parliament, with Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza a major topic of the campaign.
Galloway has since said that his British Workers Party will try to field candidates in every constituency in the next UK general election.
An anonymous Labor source in the West Midlands told The Times: “As a general rule we would have defeated him (Andy Street), but the Muslim vote fell in favor of the Galloway-backed independent.”
Another source quoted by the BBC caused controversy and was accused of racism by Conservative sources: “It is the Middle East, not the West Midlands, that would have given Andy Street the mayoralty. Once again Hamas is the real villain “
In a statement, Labor told ITV: “The Labor Party strongly condemns this racist quote which does not come from someone who is speaking on behalf of the party or whose values are welcome in the party.”
Labor lost its 13-year control of the local council in Oldham, with its majority reduced in recent weeks before the election after councilors defected in protest against Labor leader Keir Starmer’s stance on Gaza.
However, Aruz Shah, head of the Labor council in Oldham, disputed that Gaza was the main issue, telling The Independent: “I don’t think that’s a fair statement, given that the Gaza issue ended last year. “It’s happened, but it’s much longer than what we’ve seen in Oldham. We’ve had 13 years of austerity and it’s been really tough.”
Elsewhere, Green Party candidates also claimed former Labor seats in Newcastle and Bolton.
Nick Peel, Labor council leader for Bolton, told The Independent: “As a direct result of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine, many South Asian voters have not supported Labor or the Conservatives.”
Chris Hopkins, political research director at market research company Savanta, told The Independent that Labor could lose more council seats in areas with significant Muslim populations such as Bradford and Burnley over the Gaza issue as the results are being declared.
Leading pollster Professor John Curtice told the newspaper that “Labour has actually performed quite poorly” in areas of the country with large Muslim communities, and warned that this trend could damage the party ahead of the next general election.
“Wherever we lose votes, I am concerned and we intend to win back the votes we have lost,” Starmer told the BBC.
“But there is no denying that across the country, whether it is Hartlepool in the north or Rushmoor in the south, or Redditch, the bellwether seat, we are winning votes across the country. “And I think it reflects a changed Labor Party with the positive cases in the country.”