Anglo-Muslim voting could play a significant role in nearly 100 constituencies, according to new research.
Muslim Voices, a new campaign group, and the right-wing Henry Jackson Society (HJS) have increased the number of seats to 92 and 120 respectively, and say more than 10% of the Muslim population in 100 seats.
The Henry Jackson Society’s survey of religious diversity in constituencies across England reached 120, which could play a role in the Muslim vote, especially in the swing seats.
The HJS stated that Islam was the largest minority religion in 129 of the 220 seats with the most votes in the general election (58.6%); The second largest minority in marginal seats are Hindus at 23 (10.5%), followed by Jews at six (2.7%) and Jews at three (1.4%).
Party seats are defined by political consultancy Kalkulus Panwaslu as seats where the margin of victory is estimated to be 10% or less.
In the general election, 220 marginal seats represent a third (33.8%) of the available seats. Martin Baxter, executive director of Electoral Computing, said the results of the latest MRP poll with Sawanta showed that religion was a “significant factor” in how people voted.
Evidence of this was seen in local elections earlier this year when dozens of candidates across the country ran on the Gaza ticket, defeating Labor rivals in a major blow to Labor in an area that has held sway for decades.
In areas with large Muslim populations such as Blackburn, Bradford, Pendle, Oldham, Luton, London and Manchester, the Labor vote was rejected. If a repeat of the Gaza candidate is held in the July 4 election, Labour’s support in this region will further decline.
Muslim Voice, a campaign group founded by mainstream Muslim organizations to encourage Muslim voter turnout, identified around 92 seats where Muslim voters had more than 10 percent of the total vote.
However, they agree that Muslims are a diverse group and will not unite or vote as one group. They are divided along political, ethnic and religious lines.
