Issues regarding Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism within the Labour Party have been the subject of controversy. [1]
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Issues regarding Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism within the Labour Party have been the subject of controversy. [1]
In November 2020 The Labour Muslim Network (LMN) published the Islamophobia and the Muslim Experience report into prejudice within the Labour Party, which revealed that half of Muslim members said that they did not trust Keir Starmer or the party leadership to address Islamophobia, [2] [3] 29% had directly experienced Islamophobia in the party, and that 56% did not believe that the Keir Starmer represented the Muslim community. [3]
In March 2022, the LMN published a follow up report stating that the issues had gotten worse, specificlly referencing the hierarchy of racism that had developed in the party. [4] [5] The second report found that 59% of Muslim members thought the party's handling of Islamophobia since the first report had been either bad (19%) or very bad (40%), and that 63% of people believed Labour did not represent the Muslim community. [4]
The long-awaited Forde Report, written by lawyer Martin Forde in response to the leaked dossier— The work of the Labour Party's Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014–2019 —was finally released on 19 July 2022, [6] revealing that antisemitism had been used as a factional weapon by opponents, and by supporters, of Corbyn in the Labour Party. The report said: "[R]ather than confront the paramount need to deal with the profoundly serious issue of anti-Semitism in the party, both factions treated it as a factional weapon." [7] [8] [9] It also laid bare how senior Labour staff displayed "deplorably factional and insensitive, and at times discriminatory, attitudes" towards Corbyn and his supporters, [10] and highlighted the hierarchy of racism in the party which ignored Black, Asian, and Muslim people. [11] [12]
Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit published their 3-part documentary The Labour Files on the inner workings of the British Labour Party. It showed that false accusations of homophobia and anti-Semitism against some Jeremy Corbyn supporters were submitted to the Governance and Legal Unit of the party in order to force their suspension of expulsion from the party. This was part of a "coup by stealth" against Corbyn. The investigation was based on a massive leak of internal documents, emails, and social media messages, and shed light on the party's handling of anti-Semitism allegations, and covered the hiarchy of racism's impact on Black, Asian, and Muslim members divisive internal politics. [13] [14] [15]
In an interview on LBC radio, Keir Starmer stated that Israel “has the right” to withhold power and water from Gaza. [16] Additionally, following the resignations of Muslim Labour councillors over Labour's position on Gaza, an anonymous senior Labour source had been quoted as saying the resignations amounted to “shaking off the fleas”. [17] [18]
Shabana Mahmood, Louise Haigh and Wes Streeting spoke up during a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet to warn that Labour risked appearing callous and of losing Muslim votes over the Israel-Hamas war. Mahmood, at the time Labour's highest-profile Muslim MP, told Starmer his stance had caused huge offence in the Muslim community. Haigh said Labour leaders needed to express an emotional connection with Palestinians who were suffering. Streeting, one of Starmer's closest frontbench allies, talked about fear among Muslims of an Islamophobic backlash. [17]
The day after the meeting, Starmer wrote a letter to Muslim and Jewish Labour councillers attempting to assure concernes about the conflict. The letter made no mention of Starmer's comments made in the LBC interview, resulting in an anonmous councillor describing the letter as gaslighting. [17] [19]
In January 2024, Labour suspended Kate Osamor for allegedly making anti-Semitic comments about Israel during the Israel-Hamas war. Osamor had written that there was an "international duty" to remember the victims of the Holocaust and that "more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza" should also be remembered. [20]
Following the May 2024 local elections, in response to a decline in Muslim votes for Labour, an anonymous Labour source stated "It's the Middle East, not West Midlands that will have won Street the Mayoralty. Once again Hamas are the real villains". The statement was criticised by some, including the Labour Party, for being racist but Labour refused to name the source. [21] [22]
In the BBC's analysis of the local election results said that Labour vote share had fallen 21 percentage points in council wards where more than 20% of residents are Muslim and analysis by Number Cruncher Politics found that Labour lost 33 percentage points in majority-Muslim areas. [23] [24]
The 2024 United Kingdom general election over saw a landslide of 411 Labour Party candidates elected, but with a record low 34% of the vote share. [25]
Three of the new independents—Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Shockat Adam, defeated Labour incumbent MPs. Iqbal Mohamed was elected to the new constituency of Dewsbury and Batley, the predecessor of which voted Labour in 2019. In Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn defeated the Labour candidate with a majority of 7,247; Corbyn is a prominent activist for Palestinian solidarity. [26] Additionally, Wes Streeting retained his Ilford North constituency by a margin of only 528 votes following a challenge by independent British-Palestinian candidate Leanne Mohamad, [27] while prominent Labour MP Jess Phillips retained her Birmingham Yardley constituency by a margin of 693 votes. These results were suggested to be in part a push-back against Labour's stance on the Israel–Hamas war, Gaza humanitarian crisis and issues regarding Labour's Islamophobia. [28] [29]
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