(Alamy)
3 min read
Exclusive: A pressure group focused on who Muslims should vote for will endorse Plaid Cymru and the Green Party ahead of next month’s Senedd elections.
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 organisation has now turned its attention to the 7 May elections, which are taking place in Wales, Scotland and in council areas across England.
It is a highly anticipated set of elections, with both Labour and the Conservatives on course to suffer major losses, and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and Zack Polanski’s Greens expected to make significant gains.
The Muslim Vote recently told PoliticsHome that its broad strategy was to persuade Muslims to vote against Labour.
Now the organisation has revealed to PoliticsHome that it has decided to endorse Labour’s two left-wing challengers in Wales, Plaid Cymru and the Greens.
Muslim Vote’s Welsh spokesperson, Sumayya Ahmed, said Muslim communities in Wales are most concerned about “rising costs of living, falling living standards, underfunded public services, and the rise in Islamophobia accompanied by emboldened far-right rhetoric”.
She added: “Our endorsements come after extensive analysis of what would be best for our communities as integral components of the fabric of Welsh society. We hope that whoever governs Wales in the coming few years brings prosperity, opportunity, safety, and sanctuary to the people of Wales.”
Wales is expected to produce one of the most bruising results for Keir Starmer’s Labour when voters go to the polls next week.
The party has controlled the Welsh devolved government since the creation of the Senedd nearly 30 years ago. However, opinion polls indicate that Labour’s support has fallen sharply ahead of 7 May. A YouGov survey published last week projected that the party will lose 23 per cent of its vote share, leaving it on 12 seats. There are fears within Labour that First Minister Eluned Morgan could lose her seat.
The same research put Reform UK and Plaid Cymru neck-and-neck, on 37 and 36 seats respectively.
Responding to the Muslim Vote endorsement, a Plaid Cymru spokesperson said the election in Wales was a choice between Plaid’s “fairer, more inclusive” politics and Reform’s “inflammatory rhetoric”.
“We are proud to be a party committed to eradicating all forms of Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism and intolerance. We must ensure that one party has more seats than Reform. That can only be Plaid Cymru,” they said.
Anthony Slaughter, the Green Party leader in Wales, told PoliticsHome: “In the lead up to the election, we have been meeting and working with all the communities across Wales.
“In the current political climate, with Reform stoking up hate and division, it feels more important than ever for us to be supporting and standing in solidarity with all our different communities.”
It is possible that Plaid, led by Rhun ap Iorwerth, looks to support from the Greens to form a government in Cardiff if the party falls short of the number of seats it needs for a majority.
Last week, PoliticsHome reported that the Muslim Vote had held hustings in Scotland and Wales, which members of the Conservatives, Greens, Liberal Democrats, Plaid, Scottish National Party and George Galloway’s Workers Party have all attended. Labour and Reform UK have so far not participated, PoliticsHome understands.