In a London borough home to many Muslims, Labour loses appeal over Gaza
Al JazeeraOpposition leader Keir Starmer, who has refused to vociferously call for a ceasefire, disappoints those who have traditionally voted for his party. “The Muslim community by and large nationally tends to stick with Labour and that’s also the case locally in Newham,” said Tahir Talati, an imam and volunteer with the Newham Muslim Forum. “It feels like we don’t matter, like Labour thinks, ‘Oh the Muslims are going to vote for us whatever happens because they have nowhere else to go politically’, and so that’s an excuse not to listen to our voices,” said Ali Azhar, a cafe manager in Stratford, one of Newham’s main hubs. “I’ve always voted Labour, but to be honest, at this rate, I just won’t bother voting at all.” While this trend is unlikely to keep Labour out of power, there is some nervousness among individual Labour legislators who represent constituencies with large Muslim populations. “It used to be the case that if you put a Labour symbol on a lamp-post, people would vote for it, but that’s changing,” said Naqvi.
History of this topic
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