Independents the real winners in this election

Yesterday’s general election has handed the Labour Party a clear and decisive victory, almost on par with that of Tony Blair’s 1997 result. [1]

Contents

Labour wins with lowest turnout in 20 years Shockat Adam’s Leicester South victory “for Gaza”Re-elected but seriously weakened Labour MPs Keeping Labour in check as it enters government Analysis Also watch Also read

But is this result simply a smashing success for Labour or is there more to it than meets the eye? What of the many Independents who ran and how many of them have secured a parliamentary spot? And what happens next?

Labour wins with lowest turnout in 20 years

In the most simple overview possible, Labour have won 214 seats while the Conservatives have lost 250.

The result means that Labour now have 412 seats in Parliament, whereas the Tories have a historic low of 121. The former governing party now present as an extremely weak opposition. [1]

This result has come on the back of the lowest voter turnout in two decades, hovering at around 59.8 per cent when 630 of the 650 seats had been counted. [2]

Shockat Adam’s Leicester South victory “for Gaza”

It is important to pay attention to the Independents who have won, particularly as the mainstream media is glossing over the fact, in addition to the country’s first-past-the-post electoral system often unfairly converting votes into seats.

Independents the real winners in this election — Jeremy Corbyn, representing Islington North since 1983, crushed the Labour Candidate by over 7,000 votes. Editorial credit: BBC News

Corbyn said of his win,

“I couldn’t be more proud of my constituency than I am tonight and proud of our team that brought this result.

“Thank you very much Islington North for the result we have achieved tonight.” [3]

The other pro-Palestine Independent successes are:

Adnan Hussain (Blackburn)
Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury)
Shockat Adam (Leicester South)
Ayoub Khan (Birmingham Perry Barr).

In Dewsbury, Mohamed won with an incredible 7,000 more votes than Heather Iqbal, a former advisor to Rachel Reeves, now Chancellor of the Exchequer. [4]

Over in Birmingham Perry Barr, Labour’s Khalid Mahmood was ousted, while Blackburn was won by Adnan Hussain by just 132 votes. [4]

Some of the Independent victories have been extremely close, while others were easily taken. Editorial credit: BBC News

Re-elected but seriously weakened Labour MPs

For the likes of Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, he has held onto the constituency of Ilford North by only 528 votes. He previously boasted a majority of around 9,000. [5]

As for Rushanara Ali — who activists have for months repeatedly condemned for inaction in regards to the Gaza genocide — she has clung onto office with just 1,689 more votes than the Independent candidate, Imam Ajmal Masroor. She came into the election with a majority of over 31,000. [5]

Such close wins for candidates who have been ineffective in calling out the Zionist state’s ongoing genocide in Gaza are a warning that the next general election or by-election will most certainly see them evicted from office.

They may be allowed some breathing space for the time being, but to continue to hold the confidence of their constituents, they now have no choice but to act according to local views and not merely towing their respective party line or own interests.

Keeping Labour in check as it enters government

After fourteen years of Conservative rule, Keir Starmer is now Prime Minister.

In the process, he has alienated hundreds of thousands of party members, painted a picture of a party rife with anti-Semitism, hounded out Jeremy Corbyn, and pushed out those who used to feel Labour was for working people.

He claims that change is now afoot, but given that the two main parties have been almost indistinguishable on a raft of policy positions, it is difficult to see what exactly will change in the grand scheme of things.

What matters now is that the Independents we have voted in are allowed to do their work and continue to be supported by their constituents, while those who were re-elected by the skin of their teeth — with an almost 100 per cent reduction in their majorities — will be expected to actually represent their communities or face the threat of ouster.

Analysis

ANALYSIS

Dr. Salman Butt

Head of Islamic Thought

A success before any seats were won

Even before any of The Muslim Vote-endorsed candidates won a single seat, this election was already a resounding success for the Muslim community, alhamdulillāh.

There are many reasons for this. The hitherto engrained blind loyalty to Labour leading to their contempt for the Muslim vote being taken for granted has decisively been shaken to the extent that the higher the Muslim population, the more Labour has suffered:

An amazing amount of grassroots political capital

Our community has grown more grassroots political capital than ever before — data, media, and PR knowledge and skills, volunteers, training, campaign management and execution, general mobilisation infrastructure, and so on.

Importantly, this can and must be used for more and more activism, da'wah, and civic duty outside of election time — which is, as we always say, only a tiny yet crucial part of the bigger duty as an active Muslim in the 21st century.

Lessons to be taken from this result

While we celebrate successes and our community’s movement in the right direction, there are also many lessons to learn, including addressing with compassion and unity the strategies that we disagreed upon.

For example, those that still supported Labour directly (by campaigning or voting for them), or indirectly (by discouraging participation in this punish-Labour campaign); or the tricky business of disunity causing the anti-genocide vote to be split, thus allowing genocide supporters to slip through the middle.

As the Prophet ﷺ said, all of the affairs of the believer are good: if something ‘bad’ befalls him, he is patient and perseverant, and that is better for him.

Nothing is a failure for the believer if s/he is awake and taking notes; let these be bitter lessons for local communities to reflect back on, to propel themselves to better co-ordination and unity in coming weeks, months, and years, inshāAllah.