The local elections have been described as a test for Keir Starmer’s unpopular government, with independent and Green candidates highlighting complicity with Israel’s war on Gaza [Getty]
Voters across the UK began casting ballots on Thursday in long-awaited local elections widely viewed as a major test for the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
With polls predicting difficult results for the ruling Labour Party, and Starmer continuing to face criticism over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, candidates outside the traditional parties, particularly Greens, independents and Reform UK, are hoping to make significant gains.
Attention has focused on traditionally Labour-supporting areas including Birmingham and the London boroughs of Newham and Camden, where several pro-Palestine candidates have centred their campaigns on criticism of the Labour government’s position on Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.
“In our local area, residents want to know their candidate supports Palestine,” Hamzah Sheikh, Green Party candidate for Brandwood and Kings Heath in Birmingham, to The New Arab.
Sheikh said voters wanted councillors who defend the right to protest and support measures linked to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement within local authorities.
“The Green Party has called for an end to the genocide while the Labour government refuses to condemn Israeli war crimes,” he said.
In Camden, Green Party candidate Lilac Carr said solidarity with Palestine formed a “key part” of her campaign. She said activists were attempting to pressure Camden Council to divest pension funds from companies linked to Israel’s war on Gaza.
“If elected councillor in Bloomsbury, it would be my absolute honour and privilege to support the cause of Palestinian liberation, freedom and equality in any way that I am able,” Carr told The New Arab.
Candidates from the Camden People’s Alliance have also criticised Labour councillors over their response to the war.
“No Labour councillor has spoken up either inside or outside the council. This is unforgivable,” Shezan Renny, candidate for King’s Cross and founding member of Camden Friends of Palestine, told The New Arab.
Renny said campaigners had attempted to bring discussions on Palestine into Camden Council, but only one Green Party councillors had agreed to table a motion on the issue.
“Although elected local officials don’t have an international role, they can take a moral stance just like Camden Council did during South African apartheid. To be silent is to be complicit,” she said.
Palestine solidarity activists have long condemned the current Labour Party leadership for failing to denounce the war in Gaza while continuing arms exports despite allegations of Israeli war crimes.
In Newcastle, independent candidate Chandni Chopra accused Labour politicians of remaining silent during Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.
“We must never forget that whilst the people of Gaza were being genocided, the Labour government not only armed Israel to do so, but actively provided cover for their crimes,” Chopra told The New Arab.
“Our Labour MPs and councillors remained silent to protect their careers whilst babies were being deliberately killed and starved to death and while the whole of Gaza’s medical infrastructure was being decimated,” she said.
She questioned how the public could trust the same democratically elected officials with public services and children’s futures if they remained silent in the face of such horror.
“We can’t. The system must be challenged. We need democratically elected officials with compassion to represent us,” she said.
Similar criticism emerged in Oxford, where Green candidate Edward Mundy said voters had been deeply disappointed by Labour’s position.
“The genocide will never be forgotten, as will the participation in that genocide by the UK, which has supplied military components to Israel and flown spy flights over Gaza,” Mundy told The New Arab.
“The Labour Party and our human rights lawyer prime minister Keir Starmer are utterly complicit, continuing the country’s unwavering support for Israel and trying to stop expressions of solidarity with the Palestinian people,” he added.
In Birmingham, Corinthia Ward, a candidate for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, linked anger over Gaza to wider frustrations over living standards and public services.
“Keir Starmer can find money for war but not for welfare, and our communities are faced with a second cost of living crisis in five years,” Ward told The New Arab.
“The destruction of Gaza and the West Bank is an attack on our working-class brothers and sisters. It is never workers who start these wars, but ultimately it’s our lives that pay for them,” she added.
