Yusef Rabiah writes:

As Keir Starmer’s Labour Party readies itself to form a new government on July 5, there are many lingering uncertainties and blurred lines. Are the party’s plans ambitious enough to meet the nation’s needs? Will Starmer make a stand or continue to flip-flop between policies? Is the forthcoming election victory merely a castle made of sand?

One element however is crystal clear: Labour has irrevocably lost the support of the 500,000-strong British Arab community, likely for generations to come.

Recent polling by the British Arab Assembly, a civic society representing British Arab political interests in the UK, reveals a staggering drop in Labour’s vote share among this community — from 70% to a meagre 1% ahead of the general election on July 4.

In key battleground seats like Kensington and Bayswater, where nearly one in 10 voters are British Arab, this seismic shift is poised to benefit the Liberal Democrats who have been a strong voice on a ceasefire in Gaza and wider anti-Arab prejudice driven by their star MP, Layla Moran.

A similar narrative is unfolding in Bristol Central, where Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media, and Sport Thangam Debbonaire is looking more likely by the day to be the big scalp of Green Party leader, Carla Denyer. Here, the Bristol Arab Society has mobilised its members in droves to assist the latter in ousting the embattled Labour Party candidate. A West Country-based Labour MP recently told me, “She’s turned into the Bristol establishment villain of the city.”

The reason for this dramatic shift is glaringly obvious: Keir Starmer’s appalling, and to most British Arab voters, unforgivable response to the mass murder of Palestinian and British civilians in Gaza and the West Bank since October last year. [Continue reading…]