As a British taxpayer, I want us to fund the Palestinians. I want us to give them weapons, guns, missiles, and allow them to liberate themselves against their occupiers.
More than 570 candidates associated with an Islamic sectarian agenda and endorsed by an Islamist-linked pressure group, The Muslim Vote, secured significant victories across 58 councils and two mayoralties in England’s local council elections held on May 7.
“For context, this means that over 1 in 10 candidates who were elected to English local councils are Muslim sectarians,” Emma Schubart, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), who first published the figures, announced. In all, 5,066 councilors were elected.
In the HJS report “Forecasting the Muslim Sectarian Wave,” Schubart defined “Muslim sectarians” as those who “repeatedly and saliently” campaigned on issues of “Muslim communal grievance” or “transnational Muslim causes” as “a central part of their political appeal.”
Of the victorious “Muslim sectarians,” 132 were elected as Independents, 350 as Green Party members, 84 as Labour Party members, and six as Liberal Democrats.
Islamopopulism: A Threat to Coexistence in Britain
Analyzing the HJS figures, political correspondent and TalkTV presenter André Walker explained that the 574 candidates qualified as “Islamist jihadis” even though not all were Muslims, because their agenda was manifestly linked to political Islam.
“This is the biggest step forward in the Islamization of any country, I think, since the war in Lebanon; the civil war in which the Christian Maronites were thrown out in favor of Islamism,” he remarked. Walker noted that Islamists won about 12 percent of the election even though Muslims were six percent of England’s population.
Describing the Islamist-linked wave as “Islamopopulism,” the U.K. think-tank Policy Exchange published evidence that TMV and Vote Palestine were key drivers influencing the victories of the 574 candidates.
The 82-page dossier titled “Islamopopulism Part 2: The Muslim Vote, Vote Palestine and
Muslim independents in their own words,” exposes the ties between the Muslim lobby groups and Islamists and warns that such “questions are fundamental for the future cohesion of the UK.”
Lobbies’ Extremist and Antisemitic Associations
“TMV, Vote Palestine, and many independents have links with many extremist or problematic individuals and groups, including supporters of terrorism, leaders of a group now banned as terrorist, and holders of deeply hateful views,” the report states. “TMV compares its work to the Muslim leader Saladin recapturing Jerusalem from the Christians during the Crusades.”
The report also identified an alliance between Islamists and leftists, noting that TMV had claimed to have held discussions with Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, and seeks a “grand deal” with the Greens to “divide up the country.”
It also noted that the priorities of the “Islamopopulists” are different from those of British Muslim voters, with hostility to “Zionism” forming a central plank of the movement and Palestine functioning as its “overwhelming policy priority.”
Anti-Israel voices played a significant role in the movement. The Independent Candidate Alliance, under co-leader Shakeel Afsar, which won multiple seats in Birmingham, had asked the U.K. government to arm Hamas, Andrew Gilligan, the report’s co-author, noted.
“As a British taxpayer, I want us to fund the Palestinians,” he said in an interview with Iran’s Press TV. “I want us to give them weapons, guns, missiles, and allow them to liberate themselves against their occupiers.”
The main speaker at TMV’s June 2024 meeting was Haitham al-Haddad, who supported the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians and whom Commission for Countering Extremism described in 2018 as an extremist, misogynist, homophobe, and racist who promotes “a supremacist ‘us versus them’ worldview,” the Policy Exchange dossier reported.
The report found that Haddad recorded videos promoting TMV and describes himself as a “member” of the group. Further, his media outlet, Islam21c, is a TMV affiliate. Haddad also signed a TMV open letter just before the election, urging Muslim voters to “unite behind the single Muslim vote candidate” endorsed by TMV, even if they disagreed with them.
TMV’s Backdoor Islamic Supremacism
In 2024, Carys Moseley, a public policy researcher at Christian Concern, published a report warning of TMV’s “backdoor Islamic supremacism.”
In her analysis, Moseley pointed out several Islamist drivers in TMV’s agenda, including the desire to censor criticism of Islam, impose dhimmitude on non-Muslims, demand Shariah finance, dismantle counterterrorism, and undermine democracy by prioritising Palestinian issues.
“By now, it should be clear that TMV is highly likely to be attempting to sneak in Islamic supremacism through the back door into British politics,” Moseley wrote. “TMV is part of a global campaign. This increases the likelihood that it espouses an Islamic supremacist position.”
“The Muslim Vote has not published its desired policies ahead of the May elections but has nevertheless held hustings for candidates,” Moseley told Focus on Western Islamism. “This is secretive behavior, courting politicians while hiding their intentions from voters. It is a form of entryism that politicians should be confronting courageously, rather than appeasing.”
Parliamentarian Highlights TMV’s Islamist Links
Two days after the elections, Conservative parliamentarian Claire Coutinho wrote to Bridget Phillipson, minister for women and equalities, demanding a “clear condemnation” of TMV and “the divisive and sectarian politics it represents.”
“The Muslim Vote’s own website makes it clear that they are affiliated with groups with Islamist connections and/or with a history of spreading antisemitism,” Coutinho stressed. The lawmaker listed the Muslim Council of Britain, Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), Islam21C, and Prevent Watch as examples of Islamist and antisemitic organizations.
Coutinho also cited instances of independent candidates like Mohammed Suleman, who was elected as a Green Party candidate in Newcastle despite being suspended for antisemitism, and Shahid Butt, convicted of jihadi terrorism in Yemen. Butt failed to win a seat.
“These are not the views of many moderate Muslims in Britain who abhor sectarianism and antisemitism,” Coutinho warned. “It is precisely because The Muslim Vote campaigns in their name but not with their values that it should be properly scrutinized.”
