Marsha Singh(Labour)
Summary
Marsha Singh
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LABOUR
Bradford West |
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Voting History
War
Voted against Invasion of Iraq ( Iraq - Declaration of War, 18 Mar 2003)
Absent from vote on Air strikes on Afghanistan (Coalition Against International Terrorism, 1 Nov 2001)
Anti-Terror Laws
Absent from vote on Indefinite detention without charge, without trial (Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill - Clauses 22 to 24 - Indefinite Detention - 21 Nov 2001)
Voted for Renewal of above law (Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 - Renewal of Part 4 sections 21-23 - 3 Mar 2004)
Voted for Control orders – house arrests (Prevention of Terrorism Bill - Third Reading - 28 Feb 2005)
Muslim Schools
Voted against Proposed amendment to Education Bill forcing all new state funded religious schools to reserve at least a quarter of places to children from other faiths thereby effectively destroying the religious ethos of the school. This disproportionately targeted the Muslim community as out of around 7000 existing state funded religious schools that would escape this law only 4 were Muslim - all new Muslim schools would be effected.(Education Bill - New Clause 1 6 Feb 2002)
Early Day Motions
Islamophobia
Did not sign EDM on Call for BBC to sack Kilroy-Silk for his racist comments. (EDM 383, 08.01.04)
Halal Meat
Did not sign EDM on Call for the government to work actively to end religious slaughter in the UK (EDM 104, 26.11.03)
Hijab
Supports Call for UK & EU partners to protest France's ban on religious symbols in schools. (EDM 461, 21.01.04)
Israel
Supports Call for suspension of EU-Israel Association Agreement which gives Israel preferential trade terms with the EU. (Oana King has)
Supports Call for sanctions against Israel for not complying with the International Court of Justice decision on the illegality of the separation wall.(EDM 162, 24.11.04)
US
Did not sign EDM exposing double standards in US foreign policy regarding terrorism and democracy. (EDM 664, 04.02.05)
Election Survey:
Questionnaire not returned.
If you live in this constituency we request that you email our sample letter to this candidate asking them to respond - its your right to know what your candidate stands for. Failure to respond may be interpreted as a candidates unwilling to clarify his or her real position and a disregard for the concerns of Muslim constituents.
Other Information
He is strongly anti-war[1][2] but has also supported the anti-terror legislation which targets Muslims.
[1]
Question to Tony Blair (20 Oct 2004): Does not the Prime Minister believe that the hole that he has dug in respect of Iraq is big enough? Is not it time to listen to the British people and to say no to the Americans, and high time that we stopped digging?
[2]
Commons debate (20 July 2004): Those of us who opposed the war from the very beginning did not need a Hutton or a Butler report. We knew that this country was not under attack or in any imminent danger of attack, and that no ally of ours was either. Therefore, war was wrong.
Conclusions
Looking at the results from the last elections and with the absence of any strong new candidates joining this time, Bradford West appears to be a two horse race - between Labour and Conservative. This is a shame because 38% of the constituency are Muslims - 25,000 of voting age which is significantly greater than the number of votes the winning party received in the last election (18,401) - the potential is there for Muslims to name who will represent them but the the lack of any great candidates to choose from, the opportunity is lost.
The Labour candidate is a mixed bag - he is anti-war and his EDM record is reasonably good, but at the same time he has supported the anti-terror legislation which has targeted Muslims. In the absence of any information on the other candidates (no questionnaires returned) we cannot give a clear recommendation. Having said that many Muslims will no doubt vote for the anti-war Labour candidate just to ensure the Tories don't take the seat.
* Our figures are conservative reflecting the minimal strength of the Muslim vote:
1. The Muslim population figures are taken from the 2001 census. The religion question was optional and many Muslims did not feel comfortable giving out this information if wasn't a requirement. (This writer knows of two members of his own family who did not answer this question out of fear that one day this data will be used to discriminate against them).
2. Our statistics assume only 64% of the Muslim population is of voting age (18+). This figure is much lower than the national average because the Muslim population is the youngest in the country with 34% under the age of 16 (the national average is 20% under 16). Please note that our estimates are slightly less than those given on the MCB website.
(source http://www.statistics.gov.uk)
