A UK-based Muslim Vote group is holding hustings in Scotland and Wales and preparing endorsements ahead of May local elections, aiming to steer Muslim voters toward Greens and independents and away from Labour.
A campaign group urging Muslims to align their votes by faith is ramping up public hustings ahead of elections scheduled for 7 May.
The group. known as the Muslim Vote. was set up in late 2023 and says its goal is to shape ballot-box outcomes—particularly by pressuring Labour.. After endorsing four independent candidates in the 2024 general election. all of whom won on campaigns centered on the war in Gaza. the organization is now moving from national campaigning to a wider push in devolved and local races.
In the run-up to the next ballot, Muslim Vote has already held hustings in Scotland and Wales.. Members of multiple parties attended those events. including the Conservatives. Greens. Liberal Democrats. Plaid Cymru. the Scottish National Party and George Galloway’s Workers Party.. Labour and Reform UK, so far, have not participated.
Muslim Vote’s strategy, as the group frames it, is explicit: push “the needle” on Labour and encourage votes against it—not only as a response to Reform’s rise, but also as a way to reclaim what it describes as Labour’s historic support among ethnic minority and Muslim communities.
A key detail in the group’s approach is that it does not treat the election as a single. generic contest.. Instead. it is compiling an endorsement slate for the coming local elections and devolved parliaments. with the intention of releasing candidate recommendations in the days ahead.. At the time of writing. the group had indicated it was weighing support for a wider range of candidates rather than funneling all energy into one party.
While the Muslim Vote’s candidate list is still being finalized. the group’s actions suggest where its political center of gravity lies.. Internal planning—and the way participants talk about likely outcomes—points to most endorsements going to Green candidates. with special focus on Zack Polanski’s party and on independent hopefuls. particularly in areas of east London with large Muslim populations.
That matters because May’s elections are being treated by multiple political camps as a referendum on momentum: the Greens are expected to make meaningful gains in the capital. and those gains are widely predicted to come largely at Labour’s expense.. For Muslim Vote. that predicted shift is not simply electoral trivia—it is the mechanism the group believes will translate voter anger over Gaza into tangible local power.
The human impact is clearest in how the Muslim Vote describes lingering grievances.. The group’s spokesperson. Abubakr Nanabawa. argues that the response to the war in Gaza has not been forgiven by many Muslim voters. describing the issue as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” In his account. Muslim voters did not simply drift toward another option; they sought alternatives that felt more aligned with their priorities—whether through the Green Party or through independent candidates campaigning on Gaza.
There is also a broader political point in the group’s messaging: Nanabawa frames Labour’s difficulties as wider than one demographic group.. He argues that working-class voters across the country have moved away from Labour. but that disaffection becomes especially visible in Muslim communities where the gap between promises and outcomes feels most acute.
Politically, the next step is proving organizational muscle at a national scale.. Muslim Vote’s hustings across Scotland and Wales are a signal of ambition. but the real test will be how effectively the group turns endorsements into votes across a patchwork of local authorities and devolved races.. Cities such as Birmingham. Leicester and Bradford—where the group believes independent candidates with Gaza-focused campaigns can make inroads—are likely to show whether the movement can broaden beyond London.. If its predictions hold. the pressure could influence not just individual councils but also how parties calibrate their messaging and candidate selection ahead of the next general election.
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