Britain’s Parliament Will Soon Have an Islamist Party

Gaza independents to join with Corbyn’s socialist breakaway from Labour

Zarah Sultana has proudly proclaimed, “We are all Palestine Action” — something that could now get her imprisoned if stated outside the chamber of the Commons. She was elected last year as a member of the Labour Party. Photo: Jessica Taylor/House of Commons.

Is Britain about to be the first Western country to see an Islamist party have sizable parliamentary representation? It is looking increasingly likely.

What makes it more depressing for the UK to be the frontrunner for this particular stomach-churning phenomenon is that British elections, like those in the United States, are first-past-the-post. The proportional systems found in much of Europe and indeed Israel are much more conducive for small parties.

In the British general election a year ago, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party won a parliamentary landslide, albeit on a fairly low share of the vote (33.7 percent of those who voted, 20.2 percent of those eligible to vote). But it did not all go Labour’s way. Four independent Islamic MPs running on “Gaza solidarity” platforms were elected for heavily Muslim, and previously safely Labour, constituencies. In addition Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-left previous leader of Labour who had led the party to electoral disaster in 2019, won as an independent running against his old party in his genuinely multi-racial north London seat.

In terms of foreign policy, Corbyn ticks all the far-left boxes. He is virulently anti-American, has a soft spot for Xi’s China and Putin’s Russia (as anti-Imperialist, ie anti-U.S., powers) and thinks Iran is misunderstood. But he reserves his real passion for all things Palestinian. He is virulently anti-Zionist, and the best that can be said for him is that he has a tin ear when it comes to antisemitism. Before becoming Labour leader in 2015, Corbyn spoke of “our friends in Hezbollah… our friends in Hamas” and in Tunis took part in a wreath laying near the graves of the Black September terrorists. Inevitably, he would later claim both events were misinterpreted.

For the last year Corbyn has been toying with the idea of launching a new socialist party to the left of Labour, including himself and the four Gaza independents. The various factions of the British far left have long fantasized of breaking out of their sectarian grouplets and forging a mass socialist party. They have seen Britain’s burgeoning Muslim community, now making up around 6 percent of the UK’s population, as a route to turbocharging this aspiration. It is a marriage of convenience, but what unites them is anti-Zionism and hatred of the United States.

Over the last few weeks, events have speeded up. Here’s what’s happening: