Main Edition
US
FR
November 17, 2024 - 8:00am
Under the premiership of Keir Starmer, Downing Street has found itself embroiled in a variety of controversies. The latest has come within Number 10 itself, with the Government apologising this week after meat and alcohol were served at a Diwali celebration last month.
In recent times, there has been a fraying of relations between the Labour Party and British Hindu voters — especially those of Gujarati heritage in cities such as Leicester. A 2021 survey into British Indian attitudes found that a plurality of Hindu voters held a preference for the Conservatives over their supposed “natural party” — something which accelerated under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.
A variety of factors drove this shift in the Corbyn era, such as the perception that Labour fraternised with questionable Muslim organisations, as well as the party’s oppositional stance towards Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This view was reinforced after Labour passed a 2019 party conference motion that supported “international intervention” in territorially disputed Kashmir — a motion submitted by local branches in towns such as Blackburn, Keighley, and Wakefield, with these three having notable populations of Pakistani Muslim origin.
While Starmer has sought to distance the Labour Party from the “Kashmir” issue and rebuild ties with British Indian voters, the only gain the Conservative Party made in its disastrous general election showing in July — under the UK’s first Hindu prime minister Rishi Sunak — was in Leicester East. A constituency which Labour had held since 1987, Leicester East elected Gujarati Hindu-origin Tory candidate Shivani Raja to Parliament. The seat incorporates the area of Belgrave, with nearly three in four residents in Belgrave South being Hindu. On Leicester City Council, Belgrave is represented by three Conservative Hindu councillors: Shital Adatia, Yogesh Chauhan, and Jaiantilal Gopal. Nationally, the demographic where the Tories lost the least support in the July election was British Asians, particularly Hindus.
While the Tories suffered a series of general election losses in the capital, Bob Blackman’s hold on Harrow East remained steady, winning 53.1% of the votes cast in a constituency where Indian-origin Hindus are a critically important voter group. In fact, Blackman — who has previously expressed support for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and who took his oath in Parliament on the Bhagavad Gita as well as the King James Bible — increased his majority over Labour from 8,170 to 11,680 votes.
It is worth noting that during the 2022 English local elections the London borough of Harrow bucked the general national trend, with the Tories gaining control of the council from Labour — and eight councillors at the expense of Starmer’s party. While much of England has deserted the Tories in recent national and local elections, that has certainly not been the case in the Hindu-concentrated areas of London and Leicester.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeDid Raja win election because he was Hindu? The article certainly implies his religion and that of the constituents was relevant.
This is racism. This is sectarianism. This is the poisoned fruit of multiculturalism.
Any “faith and culture” adviser with a reasonable understanding of British Hindu practices, customs, and norms would know that serving meat — especially beef — would be hugely undesirable at a Diwali celebration.
And they think that not only can they run the country but improve its situation?
As Mr Roussinos has pointed out elsewhere, in a sectarian society voting is a census.
It’s just as well there are no large groupings of people following the Jedi religion, otherwise Starmer would be dressing himself as a Jedi knight and Rachel Reeves would be using the Force to influence everyone else into accepting the budget.
As well as being british and do feel some relationship with the state of Israel and Jews worldwide, but I try not to base entire my UK vote on ‘Israel’ as I think it is unfair to use my vote in the UK election simply for foreign geopolitics. ‘What is good for Britain’ should be the question you vote on at an UK election, not geopolitics or community interest or self interest.
What a great photo of 2 tier Keir grovelling with a red dot on his forehead. Put it in the gallery alongside him and Angie taking the knee for BLM.
This duplicitous charlatan is going to be fully exposed for what he really is when the Southport murderer’s trial starts, which is why, according to Nigel Farage, they are desperately trying to delay it further.
Identity politics?
Which group of people in Britain do not have a common identity, and do not vote for a party that promotes their common identity?
There must be many people like me who are floating voters; whose votes all the electioneering is designed to catch. But like other correspondents here, I worry that our “multicultural” society is really lots of religious groups living cheek by jowl.
If anyone thinks many indigenous British are wary of Islam they should check in with Hindus.