Elham Asaad Buaras
An estimated 443 Muslim councillors were elected in the local elections in England, according to data exclusively compiled by The Muslim News.
At least 70 per cent of councils in England had at least one Muslim candidate contesting for a ward seat on May 5. Over 1,130 Muslim candidates ran in local elections in England, of which 296 men and 147 women successfully secured council seats.
The majority of seats up for election in England were contested in the 2018 local elections where 380 Muslim councillors were elected, meaning that 64 more Muslim councillors were elected.
Almost 60 per cent (256) of elected Muslim candidates contested London councils. Tower Hamlets has the highest number of Muslim candidates (102), 39 of whom were elected as councillors, thanks largely to the success of the newly formed local Aspire party.
As a result of Labour’s success in London, 13 councillors with Somali heritage (six women and seven men) were elected and re-elected, bringing the number of Somali heritage councillors in the capital to 28.
In the North-West, 160 Muslims ran for seats, of which 69 won in 16 councils. Only London has more newly elected councillors. The West Midlands had the third-highest number of Muslim candidates running for council seats in the country, with 132. Of those, 43 were voted in.
Birmingham City Council, where Labour won 65 seats to keep its majority, accounted for more than half the Muslim councillors elected in the West Midlands, with 25. In contrast, all 35 Muslim Tory candidates lost their elections in Birmingham, where the party lost three seats, but remain the second-largest party with 22 seats.
In the South-East, 65 Muslim candidates ran for seats, 25 of which were elected, the fourth-highest regionally.
A total of 16 Muslim councillors were elected in the East of England; 16 in Yorkshire and the Humber; 11 in West Yorkshire; 3 in the South-West; and 4 in the Midlands.
Like in all previous local elections, Muslim Labour councillors dominate the political landscape of Muslim politicians. This year, 353 Muslim Labour councillors were elected in England, representing 80 per cent of all Muslim councillors, a 10 per cent drop from the 2018 local elections.
Thirty-seven Muslim Conservative councillors were elected in England, on a night, which saw the party lose several flagship councils due to the Partygate scandal and the cost-of-living crisis.
The Conservatives remain in charge mainly in the Brexit-backing fringes of London—Bexley, Bromley, only the unexpected gain of Harrow to brighten an otherwise bleak night for the Tories.
Labour’s success in the capital was illustrated by the comfortable re-election of Newham Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE, who won a second term having secured 56.2 per cent of the votes.
Her victory in 2018 saw her become the third BME directly elected mayor in the country. She was also the first elected female BME mayor in Europe.
Congratulations to Rokhsana Fiaz on being re-elected as Mayor of Newham pic.twitter.com/WC4iUYlXB8
— Revive FM UK (@ReviveFMUK) May 6, 2022
Alongside her political success, Fiaz is widely involved in charitable causes. She once served as the Chief Executive of an international charity supported by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) that promoted intercultural dialogue through art and cultural education.
She was a prominent staff member of the 1990 Trust. She also held the position of executive director of a charity working to build bridges between Muslim and Jewish university students to tackle anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. Speaking after her electoral victory, Fiaz said, “It is the greatest honour to be re-elected to serve the people of Newham for the next four years.”
Not only did Labour retain strongholds in London councils like Newham, but they also seized control of new ones such as Westminster City council, which switched red for the first time since its creation in 1964.
A week after the election, Westminster City Council announced it was to vote-in its first Muslim Lord Mayor and its youngest ever incumbent. Hamza Taouzzale, a Londoner of Moroccan heritage, can also lay claim to being the only incumbent of Black, Asian or minority-ethnic heritage to hold the post as the City’s first citizen.
Here’s the official picture everyone! The lighting is🌟🌟🌟 Looking forward to the year ahead!🙌🏽🎉#mayor #LordMayor #Westminster #Morocco pic.twitter.com/sRjmbv5cjg
— Cllr Hamza Taouzzale💚 (@Hamza_Taouzzale) May 20, 2022
The 22-year-old member for Queen’s Park ward was selected following the Labour Party’s victory in the local elections.
Taouzzale, who recently completed his Master’s in Global Affairs at King’s College London, has pledged to shake up the non-political role while maintaining its traditions.
“This is a job that’s above politics, so you have to keep the office out of the day-to-day council business. Otherwise, it will lose its importance. I do want to get out far more in the community, [and I want] to be more visible in areas where the Lord Mayor isn’t normally seen. A lot of people don’t know what the Lord Mayor is or does, and I really want to change that during my year in office,” said Taouzzale.
Also in the capital, Lutfur Rahman was re-elected to his post as Tower Hamlets mayor, a position he lost in 2015 for electoral fraud. However, standing for the Aspire party on his first return to politics, he beat incumbent Labour Mayor John Biggs. Running under his Aspire Party, Rahman, 56, won the second round with 40,804 votes to Biggs’s 33,487. The former Labour councillor became the first directly elected mayor of Tower Hamlets when he stood as an independent in 2010.
It was a great night for his local opposition party, Aspire, who won 24 of the 45 seats, while Labour took 19 seats despite previously having held 40. The result would mark just the fourth time Labour has not held overall control of the borough since its creation in 1964.
Speaking to reporters after the count, Rahman said, “The people of the borough gave a verdict today. I was in the court of the people. And they said, in a loud voice, that they wanted Lutfur Rahman and his team to serve them for the next four years. And that’s what I want to do.”
Twenty-three Muslim candidates standing for the Liberal Democrats also won seats across 12 councils in what has been a successful election night for the party in England, adding at least 189 seats.
The Liberal Democrats took control of the newly created unitary authority in Somerset, previously a Tory stronghold. The Liberal Democrats also edged out the Conservatives in Portsmouth and pushed them out of control in West Oxfordshire.
