4 min read
Exclusive: A pressure group focused on who Muslims should support in elections will endorse the Green Party in Gorton and Denton.
The Muslim Vote, set up in late 2023, endorsed the four independent candidates who were elected at the 2024 general election on campaigns centred on the war in Gaza. They were Shockat Adam, Adnan Hussain, Ayoub Khan and Iqbal Mohammed.
The group has told PoliticsHome that it will support the Green candidate in the upcoming contest to replace Andrew Gwynne, who has resigned as a Labour MP for health reasons. The party is yet to select its candidate, but the New Statesman reported over the weekend that it will not be leader Zack Polanski. The Greater Manchester seat has a significant Muslim population.
This will remain the case even if George Galloway’s Workers’ Party decides to contest the seat, the group said. The party came fourth in Gorton and Denton in 2024, and Galloway has historically enjoyed high levels of support among Muslim voters.
PoliticsHome understands that the Muslim Vote was open to supporting the candidacy of Andy Burnham in the event of the Greater Manchester Mayor being the Labour candidate.
However, on Sunday, Burnham’s desire to stand was rejected by members of Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), including Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
In a statement shared with PoliticsHome on Monday, the group said Muslim voters in the Greater Manchester constituency would play a “decisive role” in the by-election. Its internal data estimates that around one in four people in the seat is a Muslim.
“On this occasion, we believe the Green Party offers the strongest opportunity to win, and we urge them to work swiftly with local communities, while calling on all other progressive and independent alternatives to stand aside to give the best chance of delivering a clear break from politics as usual and putting the community first,” it said.
The group said blocking Burnham was “yet another example of a Labour Party fearful of even the most basic democratic challenge.” The former health secretary was one of the first senior Labour politicians to call for a ceasefire in Gaza after the 7 October 2023 attack.
The Greens voted to recognise Israeli military operations in Gaza as a genocide in 2024. Party leader Polanski has been a vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, and accused the Labour government of having been “active participants in genocide” by arming Israel.
Labour won in Gorton and Denton over 50 per cent of the vote at the last general election. However, the contest is expected to be much closer this time around, with both the Greens and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK seen as serious threats to Starmer’s party.
According to Rob Ford, author and politics professor at the University of Manchester, the Muslim population is not large enough to win the constituency on its own. However, it is large enough to “swing the outcome if the vote coalesces around one candidate”.
“The Greens’ campaign is going to be quite like Plaid’s in Caerphilly,” he told PoliticsHome.
“They will argue Labour is a busted flush and that you can have your cake and eat it: if you want to protest against a Labour government and stop Reform, you can back us.
“This is not a part of the country where they have deep organisational strength. But the demographics are certainly in their favour, with large parts of the seat having been gentrified.”
Independent candidates in seats with significant Muslim populations continue to represent one of the several electoral threats to Labour.
It is a headache for Labour in parts of east London, like Tower Hamlets and Redbridge, which are holding council elections in May. The latter is home to the parliamentary constituency of Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who was hundreds of votes away from losing his seat at the last general election.
Outside of the capital, parts of Birmingham, Leicester and Bradford are seen as vulnerabilities for Labour.