LONDON: The issue of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) has become a key factor in the tough Batley and Spen by-election. The future of the Labour leader Keir Starmer hinges on outcome of this election.
In May 2020, the Labour leader may not have realised that the Kashmir issue will come to haunt him when he took a u-turn on the historical Labour party position. He said: “Any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian Parliament, and Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully. Labour is an internationalist party and stands for the defence of human rights everywhere,” Starmer said on April 30 after a meeting with the members of the Labour Friends of India group.
Labour that had won this seat comfortably in the last general election is now worried as it battles challenge from the Conservatives and the former MP George Galloway, who has positioned his campaign around the issues of Kashmir and Palestine. Labour campaigners have said voters have accused them of abandoning Kashmir and Kashmiris to please Narendra Modi’s government.
Starmer will lose moral authority to lead the party if he loses this crucial seat, after losing another by-election a month ago, and almost everyone agrees that the angry Muslim voters will play the decisive role. Local Muslim voters have made it clear that Labour party took them for granted and stopped caring for their concerns, and for them it's time they sent send a message to the Labour party to change its direction or face the consequences.
Last week, labour candidate Kim Leadbeater was chased and tackled by a British Kashmiri campaigner who told her that Labour had let the British Kashmiri voters down. While the manner and behavior of Afsar was condemned by the Labour leader and campaigners, local voters have told media they are upset that under Starmer, the Labour Party has let them down by giving up on the issue of Kashmir and by taking them for granted. The former MP George Galloway is set to inflict a heavy loss on the Labour party, and pundits believe that the votes he could potentially take away from the Labour will decide the winner and the loser. According to the 2018 Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, Batley and Spen is one of the top 20 seats where Muslim community voters have a serious impact. It’s believed that around 9,000 voters in this constituency are Muslims. Labour has a thin majority of 3,525 and if the Muslim voters turn their backs on Labour, problem for Starmer will be too serious. Nearly 80% percent of the Muslim voters are from Indian Gujarat and the remaining are Pakistani Kashmiris who happen to be vocal and active in politics.
It’s not just the issues of Kashmir and Palestine that have alienated Muslims from the Labour party, but also the overall lack of direction of the party and the alternative it once offered. To the local voters, it's upsetting that Keir Starmer went to the local area but didn’t meet the community while Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited the constituency and campaigned with Conservative candidate Ryan Stephenson.
Labour’s traditional voters are also upset that Labour has not taken the issue of Islamophobia and racism seriously and went out of its way under Starmer to woo Modi’s supporters in Britain.
At least a dozen local campaigners who spoke to this correspondent said that they voted for Labour all their lives, but will be taking their votes elsewhere to register protest and to send a message to Labour that they cannot be taken for granted.
The Labour party has responded to the challenge by issuing a leaflet calling for a two-state solution in Palestine, self-determination for the people of Indian occupied Kashmir, a promise to tackle Islamophobia and racism, and leading British Pakistani and Asian politicians including Naz Shah, Afzal Khan and Tan Dhesi have campaigned locally. The election will be held on 1st July.
