The Labour Party enjoyed a historic victory in the recent British election, though it was largely a victory by default.
As a former Tory cabinet minister told Konstantin Kisin when describing his party’s legacy of failure:
We were elected in 2010 and we couldn’t do what we wanted because we had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. We won an outright majority in 2015 and by the following year Brexit happened. We had another election in 2017 and then another in 2019 to sort the mess out. We finally put Brexit to bed with Boris Johnson winning in 2019 and within months Covid happened. We made it through that, just, and the moment we were out of it Putin invaded Ukraine. And now we’re out of time.
Labour, which has inherited the previous government’s problems as well, will face its own challenges in No. 10.
Hyphen, an online publication focused on Muslim issues in the U.K. and Europe, noted that despite the party’s victory, there was nevertheless “a dramatic Labour collapse in the constituencies with the highest proportion of Muslims.”
We noted in our editorial that, going forward, Labour will be “keenly aware of the need to win back Muslim voters, and Israel should expect London to start keeping more of a distance.”
“The most effective electoral challenge came from locally sourced independent candidates,” Hyphen reported. “Muslim organising and the ‘Gaza effect’ have been credited for a record five independent parliamentary candidates beating Labour into second place on pro-Palestine tickets.”
A pressure group, The Muslim Vote, established in the aftermath of October 7, wielded considerable influence on this demographic, backing more than 150 candidates, including those in long-held Labour “safe” seats.
This is a reminder that mass migration presents political challenges to both parties.