Kelly’s Eye

DESPITE what the battered Conservatives might believe to the contrary after their predictably disastrous results, the most troubling aspect of last week’s local elections was the emergence of the campaign called The Muslim Vote.

The organisation’s aim – to mobilise its co-religionists behind pro-Palestine candidates – proved immediately successful, harming Labour’s support in numerous areas with a high Muslim population, even to the extent of losing control of the council in Oldham, Lancashire.

Emboldened by such a performance,The MuslimVote has now issued Keir Starmer with a list of 18 demands to be met if his party wishes to win back those lost ballots.

They include ending all military ties with Israel, recognising Palestine as a state, and apologising for not calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Manifested here is what has been warned of for years as a consequence of mass immigration, and wilfully ignored by the leaders of both main parties: the splintering of the electorate along sectarian lines.

We have on our doorstep the object lesson of how that can end in the religious divide of Northern Ireland.Yet by continuing to import the bitter enmities of other cultures, we are doing precisely what Trevor Phillips warned of a few years back: sleepwalking into the catastrophe of racial and religious conflict, as a result of liberal self-delusion over the impact of the unprecedented immigration we have allowed over the past quarter-century.

There is still time to avert that grim fate. But to do so requires an iron political will and a readiness to submerge differences for a perceived national good, both of which are alarmingly absent at present.

Instead that void is being filled by the likes of Green party councillor Mothin Ali in Leeds celebrating his election victory as a “win for the people of Gaza” and declaring “Allahu Akbar!”

Be certain that he’s a precursor of much more to come.