Politics Home | Muslim Voter Group Holding Hustings For Major Parties Ahead Of Local Elections

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The Muslim Vote, set up in late 2023, endorsed four independent candidates who were elected at the 2024 general election on campaigns centred on the war in Gaza. They were Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan and Iqbal Mohammed.

The group, which encourages people to vote on religious lines, endorsed the successful Green candidate Hannah Spencer in the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, and is planning to declare support for a host of candidates in the run-up to next month’s elections.

At the time of the writing, the Muslim Vote had held several hustings in Scotland and Wales, which members of the Conservatives, Greens, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, Scottish National Party and George Galloway’s Workers Party have all attended. Labour and Reform UK have so far not participated, PoliticsHome understands.

“Our broad strategy is to push the needle on the Labour Party and try to get people to vote against them,” the Muslim Vote’s Abubakr Nanabawa Nanabawa told PoliticsHome.

“I really see this as an opportunity to send a message to Labour Party, to reaffirm that message, that they’re not just losing votes to Reform, that they are losing votes to the left and the historic base of ethnic minority voters.”

The group is in the process of compiling a list of specific candidates to endorse across the local elections and devolved parliaments, which will be released in the coming days.

PoliticsHome understands that the majority of endorsements will be for Zack Polanski’s Greens, as well as a host of independent candidates, particularly in east London.

Activists are confident that independent candidates backed by Muslim Vote will win council seats in London areas with significant Muslim populations like Redbridge, where Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s parliamentary constituency is located, and Newham.

At the same time, the Greens, which have surged in the opinion polls since Polanski became leader in September, are expected to make significant gains in the capital at next month’s elections, largely at the expense of Keir Starmer’s Labour.

Next month’s elections, which take place in Scotland, Wales and council areas across England, will be a test of the Muslim Vote group’s ability to organise on a national scale as it prepares for the next general election.

Away from London, cities like Birmingham, Leicester and Bradford are seen as places where independent candidates with campaigns focused on Gaza pose a particular threat to Labour.

Nanabawa said that many Muslim voters have still not forgiven Labour over its response to the war in Gaza, describing the issue as “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.

He told PoliticsHome: “You have to remember that working-class Brits across the whole country have abandoned Labour en masse, not just Muslims. And what you’ll see is predominantly in the areas where the Labour Party have suffered most from disaffected Muslim voters is in these working-class Muslim communities.

“Unlike a lot of the working class communities, which have moved towards Reform, Muslim communities have found their voices within the Green Party or independent movements. They’re just looking for alternatives.”