Adnan Hussain's final rally in Blackburn.
"We will raise our voice for Gaza! We will continue to fight, until death, inshallah!" pic.twitter.com/WSUj92TVh0
— habibi (@habibi_uk) July 5, 2024
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For the BBC, Hussain's victory was fueled by "Gaza concerns".
See also, Leicester South:
There were jobs to get back to but many chose to linger at the end of Friday prayers at Masjid Umar mosque in Leicester. All were hoping to shake the hand of one man, a fellow worshipper, Shockat Adam, who hours earlier had pulled off the biggest election upset in an otherwise triumphant night for Labour.
Running as an independent and campaigning on a pro-Palestinian ticket, Adam ousted Jonathan Ashworth, who was Labour’s shadow paymaster-general, from his seat in Leicester South, which he had held since 2011.
The excitement among the crowd of Muslim worshippers, and their anger over Labour’s stance on the conflict in Gaza, was palpable. “I have one thing to say to Jonathan Ashworth,” said one man as he waited outside the mosque in a queue to congratulate Adam. “As [the civil rights activists] Malcolm X said: ‘Chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad, they always made me glad.’”
In total, Labour lost five seats to pro-Palestinian independent candidates on Thursday night, all in areas with significant Muslim populations.
Historically a demographic that has supported the party, Muslim voters deserted Labour in this election in response to Sir Keir Starmer’s initial refusal to back an immediate ceasefire in Gaza…
In a city that two years ago was rocked by days of violence between Hindu and Muslim groups, Adam says one of his priorities in parliament will be to challenge the “weaponisation of ethnicity, religion and race that has grown since Brexit”.
Challenging the weaponisation of ethnicity, religion and race by weaponising Muslim grievances about Gaza in a UK election…
Mick Hartley 
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