How the Gaza war influenced the British elections

“In generally independent “Candidates don’t do very well in Westminster elections,” says pollster Matt Singh. That changed in the July 4 general election, when Labour won a landslide victory but also lost five of its safest seats to independents. Their victories mean there are now six independents in Parliament, the highest number since 1945. With the exception of one Unionist in Northern Ireland, all campaigned heavily on the Gaza issue.

Jeremy Corbyn, a pro-Palestinian former Labour leader, won comfortably in Islington North despite not being allowed to stand for the party. But Corbyn’s name recognition and long-standing work in his constituency helped him. The surprise of the night came in Leicester South, where Shockat Adam, an optician, defeated Jonathan Ashworth, a shadow minister. An even bigger upset was narrowly avoided: the new health secretary, Wes Streeting, came within 529 votes of losing his seat to Leanne Mohamad, a 23-year-old British Palestinian.

On the streets of Leicester, a city in the East Midlands, it is easy to see why Labour was defeated. Beneath Palestinian flags hanging from the windows of orange terraced houses, residents are still angry about Labour’s initial refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, some of them echoing comments made by the new prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, shortly after the October 7 attacks, when he appeared to agree that Israel had “the right” to withhold power and water. Similar views prevail in Blackburn, a northern city where Adnan Hussain, a 34-year-old lawyer, won a landslide victory. “This is a protest election and I ran in the wake of genocide,” he says.