Gorton and Denton: one last heave for the Islamo-left alliance?

The upcoming by-election in the Manchester constituency of Gorton and Denton is likely to be one of the most explosive in recent times. Labour, Reform UK and the Greens all have a reasonable chance of winning the seat.

The by-election, triggered by the retirement of sitting MP Andrew Gwynne, has already generated plenty of headlines. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was blocked last weekend from standing as a candidate by Labour’s ruling body. Burnham was widely seen as a threat to Keir Starmer’s leadership, should he have made a return to the House of Commons.

Things have got spicier still with the intervention of The Muslim Vote (TMV). On Monday, TMV announced it would be throwing its resources behind the Green Party – a significant blow to Labour, owing to the large Muslim population in the constituency. TMV claimed that Labour’s blocking of Burnham’s candidacy in Gorton and Denton reflected ‘a leadership more concerned with control than with listening to the communities it claims to represent’. It also calls on other progressive and independent alternatives to stand aside to give the Greens the greatest chance of winning. TMV’s decision to support the Greens is further evidence that British democracy is descending into sectarianism, with voters being mobilised primarily along tribal, religious lines.

I have some sympathy with those who believe that the Labour Party has taken British Muslim voters for granted. Many Labour-controlled areas with sizable Muslim populations are characterised by ever-deteriorating public services, a lack of economic opportunities and shortages of affordable housing. In this sense, many of the concerns of British Muslim voters are the same as those held by their white British working-class counterparts in left-behind communities. Gaza was ultimately the straw that broke the camel’s back, although British Muslim disillusionment with the Labour Party has been festering for some time. That is before we get into the huge chasm between Islamic social conservatism and the ‘progressive’ politics that has come to define much of the Labour Party – especially on gender self-identification, abortion and assisted dying. Yet instead of finding common cause with working-class Britons, who share similar class interests and are sceptical of modern wokery, Muslims are being encouraged to vote as a communal bloc. To vote ‘as Muslims’, not as British citizens.

TMV’s call for Muslim voters to get behind the Green Party seems all the more dubious when you look at its policies. On paper at least, the Greens are even more hostile to socially conservative views than the Labour Party is. In February 2024, a judge found that the Greens had unlawfully discriminated against Dr Shahrar Ali – its former deputy leader – during a row over his gender-critical beliefs. He was then excluded from the party for a fixed term of two years because of ‘complaints’ made about him in 2022. Another leading Green figure is also suing the party, after she was suspended for mocking the idea that people might identify as fairies and adopt nonbinary fairy pronouns. This hardly sounds like the ideal party for socially conservative Muslims.

While there may well be British Muslim voters in Gorton and Denton who wish to punish Labour and stop Reform, they should be aware of the fundamental misalignment with the party they’re being asked to vote for. On social and cultural issues at least, there is always going to be an unbridgeable gulf between the Greens and practising Muslims.

Of course, what may really explain TMV’s backing of the Greens is one of the potential candidates. At the time of writing, the party hasn’t yet selected who will contest the seat, but deputy co-leader Mothin Ali has thrown his hat into the ring. This is the Leeds councillor who became notorious for shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ at his election count, who made excuses for Hamas and hounded a local rabbi into hiding. Such zealotry may appeal to the partisans of TMV, but will such activism really improve the social conditions of British Muslim voters? And what about those socially liberal voters who they’re backing a party for progressives when they put an X in the box for a Green candidate? Would they not feel sold out if Ali became their MP?

The strange alliance between Islamic sectarians and the left was first attempted by the Labour Party, with disastrous results. It then imploded spectacularly when attempted by Jeremy Corbyn’s Your Party. The Greens may benefit in the short term from this marriage of convenience, but it’s time for both sides to face up to the truth: Islam and wokism do not make for friendly bedfellows.

Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, which is available to order on Amazon.