Surge of Pro-Palestinian Candidates Mobilize Muslim Votes Ahead of UK’s July 4 Election

Shanaz Saddique is among several alleged pro-Palestinian candidates aspiring to wield influence over the Muslim vote in the July 4 election in Britain. These candidates wish to tap into the anger over the stands of the two major political parties over the war in Gaza. 

 Both the ruling Conservatives and the resurgent Labour Party have called for the hostilities to stop while at the same time backing Israel’s right of self-defence. This stand has drawn the annoyance of some people within the 3. Organisations that speak for 9 million Muslims in Britain and are 6% of the population of this country expect the same from it. Five per cent of the population Amount Current grants = CHF 12 billion. 

 Even though few of these pro-Palestinian candidates who contested as independents or for third parties are likely to get a parliamentary seat, the pan-Muslim campaign, the Muslim Vote, wants to mobilise enough Muslim voters to deliver a message to the two main parties. 

 Saddique, a candidate in the Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency, located north of Manchester, stressed that the question of Gaza is non-partisan and is presented as a violation of human rights issues. However, Saddique said he was unapologetic to be the Gaza party, as he spoke to Reuters. 

 The “Muslim Vote” campaigning encourages the people to vote for representatives of Palestinian stance, which means voting for the representatives of a variety of smaller parties like the left-winged Workers Party, which has 152 candidates, including Saddique. The Workers Party leader, George Galloway, who recently emerged into the national political scene in March, swept the special election for a parliamentary seat in Rochdale, another town not far from Oldham with a sizeable Muslim population. Galloway triumphed over the Labour Party candidate whom they dumped for making some unpalatable remarks about Israel. 

 The violence, which started on October 7, when Hamas-led fighters attacked the south of Israel, has been rather costly in terms of human lives. When giving the Israelis statistics, the number of dead was estimated to be at 1,200, while an estimated 250 people were also captured as hostages. For this, Israel’s offence has wrought close to 38,000 fatalities, according to Gaza Health Ministry. 

 The latest elections record roughly 230 more ‘independent’ contenders than the previous one, which was held in 2019. Many independents are following a pro-Palestinian line, especially in areas where there is a sizeable Muslim vote. For instance, these candidates may change the attitude of the voters, especially the ethnic group of Muslims or any other minority voters, and of course, within the Labour Party under the leadership of Keir Starmer. 

 The Labour Party has been slammed for taking time to move to the position of advocating for a cease-fire in Gaza. Although the party has pledged to acknowledge the existence of the state of Palestine officially, no time frame for when it will happen has been described. This confusion has triggered disappointments among the voters, such as Rafit Hussain, a 51-year-old shop owner in Oldham, who was disillusioned with Labour. “Genocide is occurring before our very eyes, and no actions have been taken… Which is rather disappointing and rather gloomy,” Hussain claimed. 

 A Savanta poll conducted in the recent past showed that as many as 44 per cent of Muslims who deemed the conflict as a critical problem responded affirmatively to this question. Poppy Yousaf gave words of the same effect, also an Oldham resident: “I will vote this year looking at independents because I don’t think the Tory (Conservative) government or the Labour government have quite promised or done things that sit right with my conscience. 

 Concerning the pre-election period, the candidates who sided with the Palestinians and the latter’s supporters aimed to change the state of affairs by referring to the suffering of the Gaza population and the desire for the British government to step up the pace of the response.