Muslim support for UK’s Labour dips ahead of crucial election Muslim support for UK’s Labour dips ahead of crucial election Muslim support for UK’s Labour dips ahead of crucial election The report says far-right figures in the UK have been sharing false claims about Muslims. (File/AFP) Short Url https://arab.news/84fgg Updated 14 June 2021 Arab News June 14, 2021 14:03 813 Follow @arabnews Poll: Support has fallen by a tenth under Keir Starmer’s leadership His stance on Kashmir cited as one of the reasons for decline in popularity LONDON: The UK’s main opposition Labour Party is losing support among British Muslims, a new poll has revealed, amid party fears that it will lose a crucial by-election in northern England next month. The poll found that support from Muslims has fallen by a tenth under Keir Starmer’s leadership. With the Batley & Spen by-election looming on the horizon, alarm bells are ringing for Labour strategists, with Starmer’s popularity dropping far behind that of his party among Muslim voters following his stances on Kashmir, Palestine, and a report on internal Islamophobia, The Times reported on Monday. He was criticized heavily soon after taking the leadership in 2020 when he suggested that Jammu and Kashmir was a constitutional issue to be resolved by India and Pakistan. This was a reversal of Labour’s stance that the region had a right to self-determination. Starmer is enduring a favorability rating of minus 7 percent among Muslim voters, compared to a 42 percent rating for the party. His decline in popularity matches a fall in support from Muslims for Labour, which fell by 11 percent between 2019 and 2021. The findings of the poll, carried out among 504 voters by Survation for the Labour Muslim Network, will stoke fears among Labour activists that the party faces losing Batley & Spen, where the population is estimated to be 20 percent Muslim. The party’s fears have been worsened by the presence on the Batley & Spen poll of former Labour MP George Galloway, who has been campaigning heavily in the constituency.