2024-03-04 03:01:00
From London
The war in Gaza is wreaking havoc on British politics. On Friday, the leader of the Workers Party, George Galloway, broke the classic British two-party system with a sweeping victory in the seat of Rochdale, northern England. The Conservatives came in third place, Labor, which had dominated that constituency for decades, was relegated to fourth place.
Distraught Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gave a television message saying that British democracy was being threatened, urging national unity and asking protesters who have been taking to the streets every Saturday in the kingdom’s main cities to “not allow themselves to be captured.” by extremist elements.”
Opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer agreed with Sunak for the first time in a long time and shared the apocalyptic tone of his message. “The Prime Minister is right to make this call for national unity and to condemn the unacceptable and bullying behavior we have seen recently,” Starmer said.
This coincidence is not surprising given the appearance of the “outsider” Gallagher. Rochdale is a direct hit to both parties. It is a blow to the Conservatives for being the ruling force, but also to Labor punished by Starmer’s obstinate pro-Israel policy, only moderated in recent weeks in the face of the barbarity in Gaza.
An exultant Galloway answered them during the celebration of his electoral success that makes him the only deputy from a left-wing force in the House of Commons. “Keir Starmer: this vote is for Gaza. You have paid and will pay a very high price for the role you have played in allowing, encouraging and covering up the catastrophe that is currently occurring in occupied Palestine and the Gaza Strip. Starmer and Sunak are two butts of the same tail and they have taken a good beating,” said Galloway with that very British inclination to Spanking and the metaphors of it.
The protesters did not acknowledge the prime minister’s requests and took to the streets with the same slogans that they have been chanting since October. This Saturday, most of the protests focused on Barclays Bank for “financial support for arms companies that are supplying weapons and military technology to Israel.”
The national projection of a local vote
In an election year, each local, parliamentary or municipal election is analyzed with a magnifying glass. For more than a year, Labor has been 17 points ahead in the polls over the Conservatives who have governed since 2010 with a recipe for permanent adjustment that seems to have fed up with the British.
In many of the 650 constituencies that elect deputies – in the British system the party that obtains a majority automatically elects its leader as prime minister – the role of ethnic minorities can be decisive. There are almost two million Muslims in the UK. In a town like Rochdale they make up 30% of the electorate.
Since Starmer adopted his pro-Israel position last October, which led him to reject calls for a ceasefire, many Muslims, traditional Labor voters, have become disillusioned with Labour. This distancing from a party with which they had an apparently unbreakable bond since the strong immigration movement from the former colonies in the post-war period was seen in the celebration of the victory in Rochdale. “We made history. “Our families voted Labor for many years as a matter of tradition, but this is a vote for change,” Hassan Ali told The Guardian.
Galloway, who was expelled from Labor in 2003 for his opposition to the war in Iraq, said that in the elections to be held in November – it is the government’s prerogative to set the date – he would field 50 candidates from his Workers’ Party in districts where Muslims have a strong presence. According to the UK’s most respected pollster, John Curtice, his victory in Rochdale is notable, but not so easily replicable.
“This is the sixth time since 1945 that a candidate who is not represented in parliament has won an election. It is a very tough result for Labor. While MPs in most of the constituencies Galloway is targeting have large majorities, they are not going to want to take any chances, so the pressure on Starmer to reconsider his position is going to be more intense,” Curtice said.
The Gaza factor
Last year there were more than 4,100 anti-Semitic attacks, the bulk concentrated after the Israeli response to the October 7 massacre. At the same time, discriminatory anti-Islamic incidents grew in the Conservative Party, leading to the suspension of MP Lee Anderson, who accused London Mayor Sadiq Khan of “wanting to hand over our capital to his Islamic cronies.”
The demonstrations taking place since the brutal Israeli response in October have not ceased nor do they show signs of wear and tear or exhaustion. Quite the opposite. With each new incursion into the Strip, more protesters join the protests. Two weeks ago, in the midst of the Israeli offensive, something unusual occurred in this parliamentary monarchy in which the king reigns but does not govern. Prince William, who is informally replacing his father Charles III who is undergoing cancer treatment, spoke out in favor of a ceasefire that would put an end to the humanitarian tragedy. A statement of this nature in an area of the government’s foreign policy would have been unthinkable in the long reign of his grandmother Elizabeth II. The eternal Israeli military campaign is achieving this.
The director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ben Jamal, advised the prime minister to look in the mirror of his own party before talking about extremists. “If you want to deal with extremists you should start with politicians, commentators and religious leaders who support a state that is on trial for genocide, for its indiscriminate slaughter and deliberate creation of a famine. Why, instead of looking at those who are protesting this situation, don’t you look at your own cabinet full of anti-Islamists? “said Jamal.
The Council of British Jews believe that Galloway’s victory is a “dark” day for the community. “Galloway is a demagogue and conspiracy theorist who foments division and hatred. His election is a black day for our community and for British politics. We hope that he will be isolated and irrelevant in parliament,” said a Council spokesperson.
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