Britain’s Labor Party, which ended 14 years of Conservative rule with a landslide victory, lost five parliamentary seats to candidates who made the Gaza conflict the centerpiece of their campaign.
In Birmingham Perry Barr, Labour’s Khalid Mahmood lost to independent Ayoub Khan by just 507 votes.
In an interview with Anadolu days before the election, Khan told Anadolu that the Liberal Democrats wanted to prevent him from speaking about Gaza.
“So, finally, I made the decision to be independent by resigning from the party.”
Birmingham, a city of 1.2 million, is home to more than 300,000 Muslims, many of whom have spoken out against Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed nearly 38,000 Palestinians and injured more than 87,000, the majority women and children. .
In Leicester South, Shockat Adam declared “this is for Gaza” as he won the seat by 979 votes.
The constituency, where around 30% of the electorate is Muslim, has been held by Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth for 13 years.
In Dewsbury and Batley, independent candidate Iqbal Mohamed, whose key areas of focus include a Gaza ceasefire and peace deal, beat Labor candidate Heather Iqbal.
After decades of strong support, the Labor Party has seen a sharp decline in support from Muslims, largely due to party leader Keir Starmer’s pro-Israel stance.
In Blackburn, Labour’s Kate Hollern lost to Adnan Hussain, who said in his online statement to voters: “I promise to take your concerns about the injustice being meted out against the people of Gaza to the places where our so-called representatives have failed. “
Former Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn ran as an independent and successfully retained his London seat of Islington North. He beat his Labor opponent by more than 7,000 votes.
He has long been a pro-Palestine voice, and his platform included a call for an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
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