CONSTITUENCY:

East Ham

MUSLIM DEMOGRAPHICS:

Muslim Population*	33,878	29.7%
Muslims of Voting Age	21,682

2001 ELECTION RESULT:

Labour	27,241		73%
Tory	6,209		17%
Lib Dem	2,600		7%
Others	1,227		3%

PJP: Kashmiri People's Justice Party

Total Turnout	37,277	49%
Majority	21,032

 

CANDIDATES:

		Conclusions

 

Stephen Timms (Labour)

Summary

Stephen Timms LABOUR East Ham   BAD GOOD

Voting History

War

Voted for Invasion of Iraq ( Iraq - Declaration of War, 18 Mar 2003)

Voted for Air strikes on Afghanistan (Coalition Against International Terrorism, 1 Nov 2001)

Anti-Terror Laws

Voted for 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

Did not sign EDM on Call for UK & EU partners to protest France's ban on religious symbols in schools. (EDM 461, 21.01.04)

Israel

Did not sign EDM on Call for suspension of EU-Israel Association Agreement which gives Israel preferential trade terms with the EU. (EDM 1288, 26.05.04)

Did not sign EDM on 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 sitting on a 30% Muslim constituency and yet looking at his voting and EDM history he appears to have done very little for Muslims in parliament! He supports imperialist wars and anti-terror legislation which targets Muslims.

We did discover that as his role as Financial Secretary in the Treasury he has worked to ensure Muslims do not have to pay an extra tax penalty just for opting for a Shariah compliant savings product.[1]

In July 2002 Stephen Timms proposed Labour set up a "Muslim Socialist" organisation: "Just as we have a Christian Socialist Movement, affiliated to the Labour Party, which I have been a member of for over 20 years, so I would like to see a Muslim Socialist organisation.."[2]. A year later it was launched, now renamed "Muslims For Labour" (as if that makes a difference).

Muslims were sceptical, the Muslim News wrote: "much scepticism remains whether Muslims will be able to influence policy-decisions or will be used as a vehicle by Labour to manipulate Muslim opinion.".[3] Muslim scepticism appears to have been well founded with the Asian Image newspaper reporting that "this year that very group [Muslims For Labour] will be responsible for trying to woo back some of those voters who have lost the trust in what they would perceive as an 'anti-Muslim' party. Reports say that as much as 75% of the Muslim community voted for Labour in May 2001 elections and that the Labour Party will be happy to get half that figure this time."[4]

 

[1] Penalties for Shari'ah compliant loans and savings to go, Muslim News 25 March 2005. http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/paper/index.php?article=1893

[2] http://www.secularism.org.uk/newspress/news23june2t.htm

[3]
Muslims for Labour group launched, Muslim News 17 July 2003, http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/index/press.php?pr=167

[4] http://www.asianimage.co.uk/lancashire/asian_image/news/AINEWS1.html

 

Ann Haigh(Lib-Dem)

Summary

Ann Haigh LIBERAL DEMOCRAT East Ham   BAD GOOD

Voting History/Early Day Motions

Not Applicable

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

No information available.

 

Sarah Macken (Tory)

Summary

Sarah Macken CONSERVATIVE East Ham   BAD GOOD

Voting History/Early Day Motions

Not Applicable

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

No information available. Cross awarded for party policy.

 

Abdul Khaliq Mian (Respect)

Summary

Abdul Khaliq Mian RESPECT East Ham   BAD GOOD

Voting History/Early Day Motions

Not Applicable

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

No information available, star awarded for party policy.

 

Conclusions

Muslims form 30% of the constituency of which nearly 22,000 are of voting age. In the last election Labour won by a huge majority of 21,000 - the total number of votes cast for Labour being 27,000. Second place came the Tories with just 6,000 votes. This dynamic suggests that their is no gain in tactical voting in this constituency. A new party like Respect if anything, being untainted by history, probably stands a much better chance at taking on this Labour majority than any of the other established parties - you have nothing to loose - vote Respect..

Election Guide Home

* 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)

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