Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer
“I was a Labour party member for 31 years. The Palestine crisis was the end of the tether for me. I cannot tolerate Keir’s policies any more,” said Waheed Akbar, the former mayor of Luton.
Akbar said many people locally had said he made the right decision to leave Labour. “This party is no longer working for the Muslim community especially. They will not be voting for the Labour party,” he said, blaming Keir Starmer’s handling of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. “People perceive that he is backing the Israeli government blindly,” he said.
He is not alone in this opinion in this Bedfordshire town that has the fourth highest Muslim population in England. Its two MPs, Sarah Owen and Rachel Hopkins, both sit in the Labour shadow cabinet. Locally, they are facing calls to resign from those positions over Starmer’s handling of the issue.
An open letter sent to Owen, Hopkins and all local Labour councillors calling for a “public and unequivocal” distancing from statements made by Starmer in an LBC interview where he appeared to suggest that “Israel has the right” to withhold power and water from Palestinian civilians has received over 1,000 signatures. Starmer clarified those comments, saying his answer was only intended to be an answer to an earlier question about Israel’s wider right to self-defence. He has not issued a retraction of or apology for the original comments.
Nor are they the only Labour MPs under pressure. All 20 of the parliamentary constituencies with the highest proportion of Muslim voters are held by Labour.
Several Labour MPs told the Guardian they had received more emails and other messages about this than any other issue in the past. One shadow minister said they had received more correspondence about Gaza “than anything ever before” and their constituents were deeply concerned about the war.
Another MP said they had received about 750 emails from constituents seeking a ceasefire and aid for Gaza, as well as a much smaller number, about a dozen, urging them to support Israel. They said other MPs had reported receiving more than 1,000 messages.
“This is by far the biggest postbag we’ve had for any single issue. We’ve received about five times more correspondence on this than the next one down,” the MP said.
They said that although they had a large Muslim population in their constituency, support for a ceasefire was coming from across communities.
On Friday, the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, and the Scottish Labour party leader, Anas Sarwar, Labour’s two most senior Muslim figures, broke ranks with the Labour leadership and called for a ceasefire. At least 29 Labour councillors have resigned from the party over its handling of the Gaza crisis. Nine were in Oxford, which led to Labour losing control of the council.
One community figure, who did not want to be named, said the language used against Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are Muslim, resonated. He said: “The talk of barbarians, savages, animals, we also hear this in headlines about Muslims all the time. It resonates because we recognise it, we’ve heard it used about ourselves.”
Birmingham Hodge Hill is the parliamentary seat with the highest proportion of Muslim constituents in the UK, with 62% of voters identifying as Muslim. Palestine flags and banners expressing solidarity with Gazan civilians were a common sight in shops and homes throughout the constituency, but apathy and anger towards Labour was less pronounced in the area.
Sameer Tariq, 20, a trainee electrician, moved to the constituency about five months ago. He said he would “probably vote for Keir Starmer” at the next election. “If Jeremy Corbyn was still there I’d vote for him,” he added. “[Starmer] is not the worst. I really hate Rishi Sunak, it’s a common narrative around here,” he said.
Over 300 councillors have signed an open letter to Starmer backing calls for a ceasefire. Majid Mahmood, a Hodge Hill councillor, was one of them. He said: “This can’t carry on – we need to quickly find a peaceful solution.”
One Labour councillor in an area with a large number of Muslim constituents said their peers “are afraid to speak out against Starmer”. They added: “I’m facing a lot of backlash from within my own group for speaking out and not following their line.”
Azhar Qayum, the chief executive of the charity Muslim Engagement and Development (Mend), said the Labour party “cannot take the Muslim vote for granted any more”.
He said he had spoken to a number of Muslim organisations and mosques who are “furious” at Labour’s response to the conflict, many people saying they would no longer vote for the party as a result.
He added that he did not think Muslim voters had defected to other parties, and said could be won back by Labour if it was able to repair some of the damage.
For some long-term Labour supporters, Labour’s handling of the crisis in Gaza cuts deep. Atilla Ustun, the chair of the Luton Turkish Community Association, is another longtime Labour member who is unhappy with Starmer’s handling of the Gaza crisis. He said: “This is not Labour. This is not why my father has been voting for the party since 60 years ago.”
• This article was amended on 29 October 2023 because an earlier version incorrectly referred to Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Scottish Labour party, as the former leader.
