Labour losing Muslim support – and it is not only Gaza
JVL Introduction
Muslim support for Labour is dropping primarily because of the failure of the Party to, eg call for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, there have been concerns for a long time over how Muslim members are treated and the lack of focus on the concerns of Muslim communities. Another issue has been the treatment of Apsana Begum MP. The forthcoming Rochdale by-election may show how serious this is for the Labour Party. In reporting the outcomes of this research, several media outlets reported that the Leadership is worried but given how long the Party has known of the concerns we are not confident that this worry will this lead to making the changes that are needed.
We also worry at the Party’s divisive approach; when compared with the focus on antisemitism the attention given to Islamophobia and anti Black (and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller) racism has been woefully inadequate. This was a feature of the Forde Report and has been largely ignored.
You can read the full results from the survey carried out for Labour Muslim Network’s poll results here
LL
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Mon 5 Feb 2024. Read the original here.
British Muslims losing trust in Labour over its handling of Israel-Gaza war
Exclusive: Party figure says it has work to do to retain support as poll shows drop in Starmer’s popularity
Labour has much work to do to retain support among Muslim voters, a senior party figure has said as a poll suggested the party had lost a portion of its Muslim voter base over its handling of the Israel-Gaza war.
Only 60% of British Muslims who backed Labour at the 2019 general election are willing to do so again at the next general election expected this year, the survey finds.
Survation, which conducted the poll for the Labour Muslim Network, spoke to 682 Muslims across Great Britain and found that the Green party has attracted 14% of British Muslims and 9% willing to back the Liberal Democrats. More than 20% of Muslim voters remain undecided, giving Labour some hope.
It is not only the party’s support among one of its loyal voter bases that has plummeted, Keir Starmer’s net favourability has dropped – albeit not as sharply – by 4 percentage points since 2021 and now sits at -11%.
Starmer’s net favourability was worse in north-west England, at -18%, a region that features constituencies with a large Muslim voter base including Blackburn, Manchester (Gorton, Withington and Central) and Preston.
Senior Labour MPs remain united behind Starmer’s efforts on the war, but have some concerns over being outdone by David Cameron, who was first to call for a sustainable ceasefire and last week said that the British government was considering recognising a Palestinian state.
A Labour frontbencher told the Guardian: “Many voters I’ve spoken to in the area are furious with Starmer’s muddling position over his recognition of Palestine’s statehood. It hasn’t gone down well. Fortunately for Labour the anger isn’t quite at the peak of what it was in November, but ultimately people are still sore, so Labour has its work cut out for them.”
As a result, British Muslims’ identification with Labour as their natural choice has fallen by 49 percentage points, from 72% in 2021 to 29% this year. On top of this, 85% of British Muslims believe the political position of parties on the Israel-Gaza war will be important in influencing their vote at the polls this year.
The 2024 Survation survey was conducted via telephone, using a combination of landline and mobile phone; the same methodology was used for its 2021 poll for LMN in 2021, a year after Starmer took control of the party.
In better news for Labour, 62% of British Muslims polled said their view of the Conservative party had become more unfavourable over the last year, with 38% believing Labour had become more distasteful within the same period.
A year into his leadership, Starmer was warned not to take the Muslim vote for granted amid concerns about Islamophobia in Labour and the party’s stance on Palestine.
Polling after a report into Islamophobia within the party was released in 2021 found that 55% of British Muslims did not “trust the leadership of the Labour party to tackle Islamophobia effectively” and 48% did not have confidence in the party’s complaints procedure to deal with Islamophobia.
Anxieties within the community have also been raised over Apsana Begum’s status within the party, as the position of the MP for Poplar and Limehouse remains in limbo after a trigger ballot was launched in 2022 when she was signed off sick after a campaign of what she described as “misogynistic abuse and harassment”.
Apsana Begum MP in her constituency surgery. Image: Twitter
Its not only Apsana Begun – there is the disgraceful treatment of Claudia Webbe…
… and not only Asian Women.
Considering the disgraceful abuse Diane Abbott received in the “leaked
report” – Starmer’s “could not bring himself to forgive her” is unbelievable. A confused illogical draft of a letter was sent to the Observer – after which she immediately apologised. The words of the letter fell foul of the Russell Paradox – a likely “cut and paste” error and had no discernible meaning. .
This has to be compared with reported comments about her which could not have been printed in any letters column. Diane did not receive any apology at all for those, where there was more activity unsuccessfully pursuing through the courts those who they accused of the leak.
This has been percolating ever since the Blair era and was a feature of the lost 5 mil Labour voters between 1997-2010. Prior to that, you have to remember that Labour was a Socialist anti-racist, anti-Imperialist Party. Labour Party rank and file supported Ghandi and the India Independence movement going right the back to the 1930 – even when lost Indian imports hurt the employment of Northern garment workers.
All through the 50s, 60s and 70s there were Freedom for Africa, African Nationalist and Arab Nationalist groups either directly or indirectly affiliated to Labour. This was part of the reason Harold Wilson’s government kept Britain out of Vietnam and it influenced his attitudes to white supremacist Rhodesia.
One of the more shocking aspects of our era is the way the Blair, Brown, Starmer’s neoliberal entryist phenomena has absolutely nothing to with the cultural DNA of the Party, yet with the help of the corporate media, even some people calling themselves Socialists seem blissfully unaware of this.
If there is any plus to the tragedy of Gaza it is that it is bring some people back to reality and their political senses.
Btw the actress Sybil Thorndike was a socialist Labour supporter who is recalled here – unlike Starmer – refusing to use her title ‘Dame’ and being an ardent Indian Independence supporter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRfomJ1nazg
Starmer IS a self-declared “Zionist without qualification”. Christian Zionists (like Pres Biden), support Jewish Zionists in their illegal colonisation of “Palestinian Zion” which inevitably involves ethnic cleansing and even (acts of) genocide. Starmer needs to qualify his Zionism and to call for an end to Israel’s ethnic cleansing.
Magaret
I’d only add to you comment saying that in fairness to Diane Abbott there was little in her definition of racism that actually differed from institutional norms on this description. This was an issue that was explored in an article reposted by JVL – see link at end.
The term ‘racism’ is itself is comparatively new. As Diane says we had terms like ‘bias’ and ‘prejudice’ to which for much the 20th century we could add ‘bigotry’. As late as 1975 some people – including anti-racists – were still experimenting with the term ‘racialism’ (instead of racism).
The term ‘racism’ evolved out of the post war decolonisation consensus and civil rights struggle and was meant to invoke the historical and structural oppressions which back-up incidents of bigotry plus the nature of the light/dark hierarchies the west had imposed on the world
We are tending to get into trouble/confusion by confusing religion and religious heritage with long popularised notions of race. The Archbishop of Canterbury is white, former Bishop John Sentamu is African and Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin is Jamaican they are all Protestant but would not be described as the same race?
Similarly, comparison of African Ugandan or Ethiopian Jews with blondes, Rachel Riley, Emma Barnett or the late Kirk Douglas would hardly suggest they conform to popular notions of the same race. Using your image search engines, compare the later with genuine middle-eastern Iranian or Yemeni Jews and you’d have the same issue.
Those that have colonised Palestine have done so using a notion of race that invokes root language – Semite(ic) – as race. It is for others to judge how cynical or not this is?
JVL link – https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/grievances-about-racism-hypocrisy-and-hierarchy/
Diane Abbot’s letter to the Observer was self-evident. White Jews among white people are not distinguishable whereas a person of colour is immediately recognised. She need not have apologised for stating the obvious. Her letter was not antisemitic at all. Starmer withdrew the whip because Diane is a lefty.
Thank you for your response Gavin Lewis – of course it was obvious what
Diane meant – as Diamond Versi said. Starmer took advantage of Diane’s
rather muddled prose to deliberately misunderstand what she said in order to withdraw the whip. It was after all a draft .. and if you are really picky (as I was in my post of 8th February) it fell foul of the Russell Paradox ..
What is ironic is that Diane (during the 2017 GE campaign) underlined the need for more police officers .. Of course as is obvious now , more police were desperately required and still are. Unfortunately she got muddled with finances during an interview and the MSM conveniently forget her original policy and concentrate only on her errors.
(It subsequently emerged that she was having health problems concerned with controlling her Diabetes. )
The dropping of Rochdale’s Labour candidate is another conflation of comments critical of Israel with antisemitism.While it may not have been wise to claim Israel deliberately allowed the Hamas attack during an election campaign the statement was political and not directed against Jews. The IDF is so ruthless that it may be what actually happened. Even so,the candidate should have anticipated the response from a Zionist like Starmer. This is another example of Islamaphobia within Labour and may well lose them the election
Further to the discussion about the treatment of Diane Abbott –
Andrew Pierce (Tory Boy) mentioned her this morning
on “Good Morning Britain” – that she had been unfairly treated.
Obviously his motive was to use it as a stick to beat the
Labour Party with but nevertheless ..