The UK elections wrote a new chapter of victory. After fourteen years, the Labor Party came to power. Rishi Sunak’s power was uprooted in Keir Starmer’s tsunami. Labor Party leader Keir Starmer emerged as the hero of victory, but the surprising thing is that despite the bumper victory, the Labor Party has faced a crushing defeat in those areas in this election, where the Labor Party already had a good hold. Now the brainstorming has started on why Keir Starmer had to face the displeasure of his party’s core voters here. On the other hand, Rishi Sunak also did not get encouraging votes from the Indian community, especially Hindus. Why?
If we look at the history of the Labor Party in Britain, in the 2019 general elections, about four out of five Muslims voted for the Labor Party. In the 1950s and 1960s, a large number of workers coming from Pakistan have been voting for the Labor Party. But this time, in the seats where the population of Muslims is more than a quarter, the votes of the Labor Party have decreased by 23 percent.
Why did Muslims distance themselves from Labor?
Now the important question is why did Muslims distance themselves from the Labor Party this time? In many areas of Britain where the Muslim population is considerable, a huge decline in the support of the Labor Party has been observed. Labor Party MP Zara Sultana has openly issued her statement in this regard. She said that since no concrete policy was put forward by her party regarding Gaza, the Labor Party lost its support in the Muslim-dominated area.
Independent candidates supporting Gaza win
Zara Sultana has warned party leader Keir Starmer that he will have to understand and accept this issue seriously. This becomes important because in this UK election, four such independent candidates have won, who had expressed their support for Gaza, they defeated the candidates of the Labor Party. Because it is being said that Keir Starmer delayed in calling for a ceasefire on behalf of the party when the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Which was also criticized.
If you notice, even before this, the Labor Party had to face Muslim opposition. In the year 2003, Muslims were angry with the Labor Party. Due to supporting America in the Iraq war, the Muslims of Britain distanced themselves from the Labor Party.
Rishi Sunak and Hindu voters in Britain
Why did Rishi Sunak’s party lose despite being popular among Indians, now the facts related to this are coming to the fore. The Conservative Party during its rule neither reduced inflation, nor could it recover the economy from recession, nor could it reduce debt, nor could it solve the problems of the National Health Service, nor could it stop illegal immigrants, nor could it reduce the criticism of luxury lifestyle. Despite the deteriorating situation in Britain, Rishi Sunak’s luxury lifestyle did not decrease.
This is the reason why Rishi Sunak neither got the support of Hindus nor the Indian community. While if we look at the figures of MPs who won in the British elections this time, more number of MPs of Indian origin have won than last time. Last time a total of 15 MPs of Indian origin had won, but this time their number is 28. Among these, the highest number is of the Labor Party. That is, the Indian MPs of the Labor Party attracted more attention of Indian voters than the Conservatives.
MPs of Pakistani origin in the House of Commons
The population of Muslims in Britain is 2 percent of the total population. More than 16 lakh population is of Pakistani origin. In this election, four candidates of Pakistani origin have won. This figure highlights the increasing representation of minorities in British politics. Dr. Zubair Ahmed has won from Glasgow on the ticket of the Labour Party. Naushaba Khan from the Labour Party has also won the seat defeating the Conservatives and Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan has once again won from Tooting, London. While Saqib Bhatti of Pakistani origin has won the election on the ticket of the Conservative Party.
