Abbreviation | LMN |
---|---|
Formation | 2016 |
Type | Campaign group |
Legal status | Active |
Location |
|
Region | United Kingdom |
Key people | Parliamentary Chair: Afzal Khan |
Parent organisation | Labour Party |
Website | www |
The Labour Muslim Network is a British campaign group associated with the Labour Party, focused on Muslim matters and getting Muslims into benefits. Labour MP Afzal Khan is the parliamentary chair for the group. [1] The purpose of the group is to promote Muslim engagement and representation in the Labour Party, conduct political training and development activities, and lead on political campaigns. [2] It is the largest Muslim group of Labour members and supporters. [3]
Following on the from establishment of the LabourMuslims Twitter feed in September 2016, and a website in mid-2017, [4] [5] the group had its official launch on 11 December 2017 at the House of Commons, with the stated aim of being an "inclusive organisation which seeks to support British Muslims' engagement in the political process and with the Labour Party, based on shared values of social justice and equality." The launch was attended by party leader Jeremy Corbyn, as well as MPs Andy Slaughter, Wes Streeting, Dawn Butler, Rupa Huq and Afzal Khan. The group brought together a broad coalition of Muslim politicians and activists within the Labour party, including Khalid Mahmood (England's first Muslim MP), local councillors, and grass roots activists. Ali Milani, a former Vice-President of the National Union of Students, chaired the launch as an executive member of the group. [6]
The presence of Milani as an executive member was criticised by The Jewish Chronicle on the basis of alleged anti-semitic social media comments he had made as a teenager (which Milani had later apologised for). [7] Shia news organisation Shafaqna noted the presence of Islamists and neo-conservatives at the launch, and expressed concern about the risks of the group acting in those interests. [6] Milani was the unsuccessful Labour candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip at the 2019 general election, at which he came second to the Conservative incumbent, prime minister Boris Johnson. [8]
The group published the Islamophobia and the Muslim Experience report into prejudice within the Labour Party in November 2020, which revealed that half of respondents to their survey of Muslim members said that they did not trust the party leadership to address Islamophobia, [9] 29% had directly experienced Islamophobia in the party, and that 56% did not believe that the Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer represented the Muslim community effectively. [10] Published two weeks after the Equality and Human Rights Commission's report on anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, respondents also reported feeling a hierarchy of racism in the party, where other forms of racism were given more attention than Islamophobia. [11]
The group also contains the Muslim Councillor Network initiative, which brings the party's Muslim local representatives together. [12]
The group is separate from the British Muslim Friends of Labour group. [13]
Liberation Left is a factional grouping operating within the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom.
Sadiq Aman Khan is a British politician serving as Mayor of London since 2016. He was previously Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting from 2005 until 2016. A member of the Labour Party, Khan is on the party's soft left and has been ideologically characterised as a social democrat.
Mary Helen Creagh is a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wakefield from 2005 to 2019.
Uxbridge and South Ruislip is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since its 2010 creation. The seat has been held by Steve Tuckwell of the Conservative Party with a majority of 495 since a by-election on 20 July 2023. The seat's previous holder, former Prime Minister (2019–2022) Boris Johnson, also of the Conservative Party, had formally resigned after receiving a copy of the Standard Committee's report into Partygate, which recommended a recall petition.
Mohammed Afzal Khan, is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Gorton since 2017.
Claudia Naomi Webbe is a British politician who is currently the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East. Elected to Parliament for Labour in the 2019 general election, she currently sits as an independent.
Wesley Paul William Streeting is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care since 2021, and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford North since 2015.
The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), known as Poale Zion (Great Britain) from 1903 to 2004, is one of the oldest socialist societies affiliated to the UK Labour Party. It is a member of the progressive coalition of Avodah/Meretz/Arzenu/Ameinu within the World Zionist Organization. Its sister parties are the Israeli Labor Party (Havodah) and Meretz.
Shabana Mahmood is a British politician and barrister who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Ladywood since 2010. A member of the Labour Party, she has served in the Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice from September 2023. She previously served as Campaign Co-ordinator from 2021 to 2023, and briefly as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2015.
Sarah Deborah Champion is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham since 2012.
James Ignatius O'Rourke McMahon is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Oldham West and Royton since 2015. A member of the Labour and Co-operative parties, he has also served as Chair of the Co-operative Party since 2020.
Momentum is a British left-wing political organisation which has been described as a grassroots movement supportive of the Labour Party; since January 2017, all Momentum members must be members of the party. It was founded in 2015 by Jon Lansman, Adam Klug, Emma Rees and James Schneider after Jeremy Corbyn's successful campaign to become Labour Party leader and it was reported to have between 20,000 and 30,000 members in 2021.
Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND) is a UK NGO. It focuses on media monitoring, advocacy in Westminster and improving the media/political literacy of British Muslims. The aim of the organisation is to tackle Islamophobia and to encourage political, civic and social engagement within British Muslim communities.
The Chakrabarti Inquiry was a 2016 investigation into allegations of antisemitism and other forms of racism in the United Kingdom's Labour Party. Chaired by barrister Shami Chakrabarti, the inquiry was launched following comments made by two high-profile Labour figures, Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone, that some asserted were antisemitic in nature; Shah, a Member of parliament, and Livingstone, the former mayor of London, were subsequently suspended from the party pending an investigation. The inquiry presented its findings on 30 June 2016, stating that although antisemitism and other types of racism were not endemic within Labour, there was an "occasionally toxic atmosphere".
A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Manchester Gorton was scheduled to take place on 4 May 2017, following the death of the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Sir Gerald Kaufman. It was cancelled on 20 April following the announcement of the 2017 general election. At the general election in June, most of the candidates who were due to stand in the by-election contested the seat, and the Labour candidate, Afzal Khan, retained the seat for his party with a large majority.
Allegations of Islamophobia in the UK Conservative Party have been made, including against senior politicians, such as Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Zac Goldsmith.
Ali Milani is a British author, political commentator, and Labour Party politician. In 2019, he unsuccessfully stood as the party's candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, a seat which was held by the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Milani was a councillor for Heathrow Villages in the London Borough of Hillingdon from 2018 to 2022. He has previously served as a Vice President of the National Union of Students.
A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip was held on 20 July 2023, following the resignation of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson as its member of Parliament (MP) on 12 June.
Steven Tuckwell is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in Greater London since the 2023 by-election, in which he succeeded Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. A member of the Conservative Party, he has also sat on Hillingdon Borough Council since 2018.