Meanwhile as Gaza is flattened again

Despite Labour’s landslide win in the UK general election, the party lost several seats after a strong showing from pro-Palestinian independent candidates, in a sign of anger towards Keir Starmer over Labour’s position on Israel’s war in Gaza.

Five independent candidates who have been vocal in their support for Gaza won parliamentary seats, while a surge in votes for independents elsewhere denied Labour a victory in areas they were expected to win, leaving a small dent in its otherwise huge majority but raising questions about its foreign policy positions.

In Leicester South, a seat in an industrial city in the English Midlands, Labour shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth lost his seat by 979 votes to Shockat Adam, an independent candidate who made his support for Gaza a key part of his electoral pledge to voters.

“This is for Gaza,” Adam declared in his victory speech.

Ashworth’s defeat comes as a huge shock. At the last general election, when Labour slumped to its worst defeat since 1935 under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, Ashworth still won the seat with a huge majority, receiving 67% of the vote.

In Islington North, Corbyn was reelected to the seat he has held since 1983 – but this time as an independent, rather than for Labour. Corbyn, who was Labour leader between 2015 and 2020, was expelled from the party after the UK’s human rights watchdog found Labour to be responsible for “unlawful” acts of harassment and discrimination under his leadership, when complaints of antisemitism proliferated.