UK Elections Witness “Assault on Democracy Itself”

Police in the United Kingdom are currently investigating allegations of widespread harassment and criminal damage by supporters of five independent MPs elected with the backing of an Islamist-aligned campaign group, The Muslim Vote (TMV), which urged voters to “punish” MPs who failed to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza.

To be sure, Labour won a landslide victory in the July 4 general election securing 411 seats (290 more than the Conservatives). But in seats where Muslims make up over 30 percent of the electorate, Labour’s share of the vote plunged from 65 percent in 2019 to 36 percent in 2024.

The five pro-Gaza independent MPs elected are: Jeremy Corbyn, Shockat Adam, Iqbal Mohammed, Adnan Hussein, and Ayoub Khan.

In a minor earthquake in British politics with potentially far-reaching implications for its secular democracy, large majorities were slashed for Labour candidates such as front benchers Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood, and four seats were lost by Labour to anti-Israel independent candidates in the constituencies of Leicester South, Blackburn, Dewsbury and Birmingham Perry Barr.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said there had been “disgraceful scenes” in the run-up to the July 4 general election, which saw five independent candidates endorsed by TMV winning seats in parliament. Such was the severity of the threats, some candidates sought police protection during the campaign. Police in the cities of Leicester, Birmingham, and London are investigating reports that candidates and campaign volunteers had their tires slashed, were accosted in the street, received death threats, or were slandered, threatened or demonized in person, online or in campaign leaflets or deepfake smear videos.

The election of these MPs represents a watershed moment in British political life, in that it brings sectarian Islamist politics into the heart of the British political mainstream for the first time. The emerging evidence of violence and intimidation around the campaigns of these individuals compounds the grave implications of their presence in the British parliament.

Evidence of Support for Violence and Intimidation

MPs backed by TMV have publicly condemned political violence and intimidation and distanced themselves from such tactics. However, critics allege their rhetoric about Gaza contributed to the inflamed atmosphere.

Here is a summary of some of the evidence of support for violence, intimidation, and incitement for the various candidates.

Shockat Adam

In late June, Leicester South MP Shockat Adam Tweeted a video recorded by supporter Majid Freeman barracking Labour MP Jonathan Ashworth over his voting record on Gaza and accusing him of having the “blood of Palestinian men, women and children” on his hands,” reported Sky News. Freeman was subsequently arrested on July 9 following a six-month investigation by police, charged with inducing people to “commit, prepare or instigate” acts of terrorism and expressing support for Hamas, a proscribed organization in the UK There is no suggestion that Adam was aware of the charges against Freeman when he posted the video on X, formerly called Twitter.

Shockat Adam is the brother of Ismail Patel, founder of campaign group Friends of Al Aqsa, which “saluted” the Hamas attacks on 7 October. He is also a chief organizer of the weekly anti-Israel mass marches seen across the UK since the October 7 massacre.

In February 2024, Adam appeared at a rally where Asim Qureshi, research director of pro-terrorist advocacy group CAGE International, said Israel “cannot exist” and must be “resisted.” CAGE International has since shared a video of the Hamas commander Hamam Al Hashash, calling him a “fearless lion” and praying for his ascendency to martyrdom.

Wajeeda Yusuf, another leading campaigner for Adam, legitimized the October 7 massacre by declaring that, “To exist is to resist. Every person has a right to resist against occupation, persecution and oppression. I stand against the oppressors and the hypocrites.” (She made this declaration the same day as the massacre.)

On March 14, 2024, then-Conservative minister Michael Gove told Parliament that both CAGE International and TMV are supported by the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) and MEND, two groups known for “their Islamist orientation and views” which serve as “divisive forces within Muslim communities and cause real harm to them.”

Another prominent TMV backer is the Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), a group led by Zaher Birawi who was named in November 2023 in parliament by Labour MP Christian Wakeford as one of four “Hamas operatives” in the country. The PFB has been a prominent organizer of the weekly anti-Israel marches that have disrupted London and cities across the UK and picketed debates in parliament about Gaza, since October 7, 2023.

Jeremy Corbyn

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn retained Islington North as a pro-Gaza independent, having lost the parliamentary whip for Labour in 2020 after describing antisemitism in the party as “dramatically overstated for political reasons.” Corbyn described Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends” during a meeting in parliament in 2009, and has delivered speeches at several anti-Israel demonstrations since October 7.

Adnan Hussein

Islamist activist and lawyer Adnan Hussein gained his seat in Parliament by winning the election in Blackburn, a city where Muslims make up 52 percent of the population. According to Craig Murray, the former ambassador to Uzbekistan and Worker’s Party candidate for Blackburn, Hussein’s campaign was largely dependent on support from religious establishment in the city.

“Adnan Hussain very frequently claimed that he had the endorsement of the Scholars and Imams of Blackburn, and indeed that this was the very basis on which he was standing for election,” Murray reported.

Hussein has a long history of incendiary rhetoric. Speaking at a “Free Palestine” rally in Bradford in 2014, Hussein claimed Israel’s military operation in the summer of that year amounted to a “holocaust,” declaring, “They let Gaza burn, they hate Gaza… Now let’s make Israel burn, let’s make Israel burn. We will stop their funding…” Speaking in Hyde Park in that same year, Hussain told a rally, “ISIS are terrorists and so are the Israeli government. There is no difference between them.” And after his election to Parliament, he declared, “We will raise our voice for Gaza! We will continue to fight, until death, inshallah!”

Iqbal Mohammed

In the seat of Dewsbury and Batley, where Muslims make up 45 percent of the population, Iqbal Mohammed—an engineer and IT consultant who quit the Labour Party over leader Keir Starmer’s early support for Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza—defeated Labour’s Heather Iqbal, a former special advisor to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, by 6,934 votes. Weeks after the election, Iqbal recounted how she was followed by a man in a van emblazoned with pro-Gaza independent Iqbal Mohammed’s face who screamed insults at her, called her a “genocide agent” and “child murderer.”

At a pre-election rally, Mohammed said the UK’s “complicit” and “silent” leaders should be taken to court as “accessories to genocide” and issued arrest warrants from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). According to an audio recording of a prayer event that took place before the July 4 election, Mohammed, accompanied by imams, asked hundreds of worshippers to “follow the teachings of the Prophet” and vote for him. Mohammed’s behavior may have breached a law making it a criminal offence to subject someone to “undue spiritual pressure,” reported The Times.

Ayoub Khan

Meanwhile, the new independent MP for Perry Bar, a suburban constituency north of Birmingham, is Ayoub Khan, a barrister and former Liberal Democrat councilor for Aston who resigned from the party in May. He resigned after being told to undertake antisemitism awareness training for questioning the atrocities of October 7. Khan beat Labour’s Khalid Mahmood, by 500 votes. Mahmood, a prominent counter-Islamist and member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tackling Terrorism, had represented the constituency since 2001.

An “Assault on Democracy”

Richard Townshend

Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood, who represents the constituency of Birmingham Ladywood, saw her 2019 majority of 28,582 votes reduced to a mere 3,421 votes in 2024 in the face of a challenge from pro-Gaza independent MP Akhmed Yaqoob, a Lamborghini driving criminal lawyer with alleged gang connections. Mahmood recounted “physical threats and intimidation” to her and her supporters, including “masked men disrupting a community meeting, terrifying those present.” Her opponents branded her an “infidel” for abstaining on a Gaza ceasefire vote and refusing to resign from the shadow cabinet.

In her victory speech, Mahmood reflected: “This wasn’t just an assault on us—this was an assault on democracy itself. British politics must soon wake up to what happened at this election.”

In the days after the election, TMV showed little concern over the acts of intimidation perpetrated on behalf of the candidates it supported, triumphantly declaring in its post-election analysis on July 5 that its movement had “sent shockwaves through our political system.”

“In Muslim-heavy seats the seeds of our community’s future have been sown. This is a sandcastle majority [for Labour]: when the tide changes, so too do these results.”

Eventually, TMV addressed the issue, declaring in a July 17 statement that “We unequivocally condemn any form of intimidation, violence and abuse. Any candidate who has faced such actions should report them to the police.”

All five pro-Gaza independent MPs are in talks about forming an official group in Parliament, in order to impact policy more effectively, as the chance to take part in debates and committees is usually proportional to party size, reported the BBC earlier this month.

Hannah Baldock is a U.K.-based researcher on radicalization and terrorism.