The Muslim News - Tory duo retain European Union seats

Issue 242, Friday 26 June 2009 - 3 Rajab 1430

Tory duo retain European Union seats

By Elham Asaad Buaras

No new British Muslims have been elected in the recent European Union (EU) Parliamentary elections. The incumbent Conservatives Dr Syed Salah Kamall and Sajjad Karim successfully defended their seats in London and the North West respectively.

The Tories overall received 29 % of the vote, an increase of 2% from 2005, and 14 percent more than Labour. It was the first time that Labour has been forced into fourth place by a minor party (UKIP) in a national poll. It was also the first time since 1922 that Labour has failed to come first in a Welsh election as its vote dropped by 12%. The last time Labour polled less than 21% was the 1918 general election when it polled 20.8%.

Karim, who defected from the Lib-Dems to the Tories two years ago, retained his seat in the North West where the Tories received 25.6% of the votes (1.5% increase).

The 38-year old solicitor from Lancashire told The Muslim News he was “delighted” but that his old party “had lost their way in British politics.”

“I was finding it increasingly difficult to properly represent my constituents as a Lib-Dem and that, in order to be true to myself, I needed to come home to the Conservative Party. The British electorate no longer has confidence in the Lib-Dem and the Conservatives are the only real force.”
He added, “I feel that as a Muslim MEP, I have a unique opportunity to serve the Muslim communities in my constituency and beyond.”

Tory MEP for London, Dr Kamall, 50, said he felt “exhilarated and grateful” that Londoners voted for him.

Kamall, who became a MEP in May 2005 after Theresa Villiers stepped down, told The Muslim News, “I still have a lot of work to do to continue the battle to help protect civil liberties, promote small businesses, keep commerce moving and to ensure that over-regulation does not prevent Britain emerging out of economic recession.”

Speaking about the importance of getting Muslims in politics Kamall said, “About 14% of London’s population are Muslim.

Therefore British Muslims and non-Muslims will welcome the fact that one of London’s eight representatives in the European Parliament is a Muslim. However, as a candidate I have to earn the confidence of voters of all communities.”

The other twenty Muslim candidates were all unsuccessful in a European election which saw the British National Party (BNP) win two seats.

Labour explained its drubbing with the need to “to listen to the voters and unite behind the Prime Minister. We need to support his plans to clean up politics, accelerate our recovery and drive forward the reform of public services.”

With 6 candidates, Labour fielded the highest number of Muslim candidates this year. However not one of the 6 would-be MEPs was placed above 6th place in the Party’s order list. And in an election where the Government was facing a strong protest vote for its handling of the financial meltdown and the MPs expenses fiasco the Muslim candidates’ inclusion became a tokenism exercise.

A Labour Party spokesman justified why Muslims were placed in unwinnable position in the list. He told The Muslim News, “The position of candidates on the Party list is the result of a democratic process. The Party continually improves its selection procedures to ensure representation for all elected positions is reflective of Britain’s diverse society. We have a proud record of promoting ethnic minority candidates and Labour’s Sadiq Khan will be the first Muslim to attend Cabinet.”

However, Labour Walsall Councillor, Mohammad Nazir, said he “realistically did not expect to win.” He told The Muslim News that had he been placed higher in order list his chances would have improved.

Instead Labour came third in the West Midlands where it lost a seat in to UKIP.
“People would have related to me. I am a grass root worker. It is the foot soldiers of the Party who do all the work, knock on doors.” Nazir hit out at cabinet members who “left the party the night before the election” instead of “uniting behind the Prime Minister.”

Nazir described the election of the BNP as “a great shame to the country that in 2009 we elect fascists. We always have a go at the Americans, but just after they elect a black president we elect fascists.”

The Lib-Dems failed to get a single BME into the European Parliament and the Party’s two Muslim candidates Qurban Hussain and Qassim Hussain Afzal were placed together to contest the Eastern region, but both were in the lowly number 4 and 7 in the party order list. A Lib-Dem spokesman told The Muslim News the Party is “attempting to turn around” its dismal record of BME inclusion by appointing Issan Ghazni as their National Diversity Adviser and by setting up a diversity fund to target resources to those seats where we have BME candidates standing.

“8% of current Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidates are from BME groups, which is the same as the proportion of the UK population made up by BME groups.

Muslim candidates actually represent a greater proportion than the UK average. But this isn’t enough. Political parties have a huge duty to make themselves more reflective of British society,” he acknowledged.

“Our politics and Britain as a whole needs Muslims represented at all levels of Government from Parliament to the EU and right down to local councils. It makes no sense for country characterised by its many rich and varied traditions to have such a closed and unrepresentative political system. As other democracies across the world move on, we must make sure the UK is not being left behind.”

Qurban Hussain was unavailable to comment on his election results whilst Qassim Hussain Afzal refused to comment.

Sohale Rahman who was one of two Muslim independents candidates contesting the London seat spoke about his failure to get elected. “It’s very difficult for an independent to get the same exposure as the BNP or UKIP; we don’t get the same media coverage so the electorate knows very little about the independent candidates.”

Rahman, who received 3,248 votes, told The Muslim News the low turn out in the Capital was also to blame. “This year only 33 % of people who can vote, voted, last time it was 32 %, so it’s the same group of people who vote. We have to try to reach to the other 67 percent who are disfranchised, because they have control.”

The community worker also voiced his concern that the BNP won two seats in Europe, “When people were voting in this country Obama was speaking in Cairo about reconciliation and it’s sad that we’re moving in the opposite direction.

The BNP and UKIP based their campaigns on immigration; there are poorer countries in the world who take in more refugees.”