The Hindu : Indian-style voting inflicts defeat on Labour

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 21, 2003

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International - India & World

Indian-style voting inflicts defeat on Labour

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON SEPT 20. Indian-style en bloc voting by minority groups has arrived in Britain dealing an embarrassing blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party which has lost its first parliamentary by-election in 15 years thanks to a "collective" Muslim protest vote over his Iraq policy.

The local Muslim groups claimed that the defeat of the Labour Party in the ethnically-mixed north-west London constituency of Brent East was the start of a "political jihad" against the Blair Government. The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, which mobilised the large Muslim vote, called it a "historic" development and the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, admitted that the party had suffered a "bloody nose" because of growing alienation among the voters. "The MPAC made history in the U.K. as the first-ever candidate was defeated by a Muslim bloc vote. The ummah (believers) had taken up a political jihad and delivered a bloody nose to the government that attacked Iraq," it claimed.

Muslims have traditionally supported Labour but this time they voted overwhelmingly for the Liberal Democrats after the Muslim Association of Britain declared the Lib Dem candidate, Sarah Teather, as the "best choice for Muslims" because of the party's anti-war position.

"For sometime now, Muslims are turning to Lib Dems because of their disillusionment with the Labour Party and the Iraq issue has really upset the community," said Irfan Mustafa of the Indian Muslim Federation but he did not think that Brent East represented a new trend towards block voting.

Echoing the shock of losing a safe Labour seat, which the party had won with a comfortable margin only two years ago, Mr. Blunkett admitted that sometimes voters felt "`alienated, sometimes just completely fed up" as pressure grew on Mr. Blair to pay more attention to people's concerns.

The Left-wing of the Labour Party urged Mr. Blair to stop pursuing the "Thatcherite" agenda "before it is too late". "There is a severe breakdown in trust in the Government," said Glenda Jackson, MP and a former minister.

Though the Labour Party has lost a string of local elections, this is the first parliamentary by-election that has gone against it and has been dubbed a "wake up call".

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