Pro-Palestine MP says: "We are here on the back of a genocide" after win

SWNS

A pro-Palestine independent candidate beat a Labour MP and told supporters: "We are here on the back of a genocide."  Solicitor Adnan Hussain pipped Labour's Kate Hollern just 132 votes in a tightly-fought contest in Blackburn, Lancs., where she previously held an 18,000 majority.  Speaking to supporters outside King George’s Hall in the town, he called for a moment of silence in recognition that his campaign came in protest at Labour's stance on Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.  He then told supporters: "We can never give up and believe in yourselves. What we have seen in recent weeks has been unbelievable.  “Now you have to carry on the fight to work towards a better community, towards a better Blackburn towards, being better people.  “We have to unite our communities.   "Like I said from the beginning our brothers and sisters in Bastwell have the same issues that our brothers and sisters have in Mill Hill.   "And we to stick and stay true to the word.  “We can’t ever forget the reality. We are here on the back of a genocide and if that is giving us an opportunity then we must grasp it.  “And use it for the betterment of our communities.”  He went on say communities could not move on and would remained stagnated if ‘communities are divided’.  Earlier Mr Hussain thanked outgoing MP Ms Hollern for her valuable service to the town in his acceptance speech.  He had pledged to be "a voice for all" in the constituency in a video address when he announced his candidacy.  Around a third of Blackburn's residents are Muslim and was one of several safe seats that fell to Pro-Gaza independents.  In his candidacy video, Mr Hussain had promised to make sure constituents' concerns about Gaza were "heard loud and clear".  The shock defeat came after Labour's former shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth lost his seat in Leicester South to Shockat Adam, who said: “This is for Gaza."  Labour's Heather Iqbal lost by nearly 7,000 votes to Iqbal Mohamed in Dewsbury and Batley.   And in Birmingham Perry Barr, the former Labour MP Khalid Mahmood lost to the independent Ayoub Khan.  All four defeats came in urban areas with high Muslim populations where Gaza had been a primary concern among voters.  Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting scraped by with only 528 votes more than his closest rival Leanne Mohamad in Ilford.

Transcript

00:00in yourselves, in your identities, who you are, never give up in yourselves, believe in yourselves.

00:07What we've seen over the last four weeks has been unbelievable. I can't believe that that kind of

00:13filth is within our communities and now you have to fight, you have to carry on the fight

00:20to work towards a better community, towards a better Blackburn, towards a better people

00:25and we have to unite our communities and like I said, I said from the beginning that our brothers

00:30and sisters in Blackburn have the same issues that our brothers and sisters have in Mill Hill

00:35and we have to stick and stay true to the word and like I said we can't ever forget the reality,

00:42we are here on the back of a genocide and if that's giving us the opportunity to unite our

00:49communities then we must grasp it, we must take it, we must snatch it with both hands

00:54and we must take that and use it for the betterment of our communities. Our community

01:00can never gain momentum, can never move on, it will remain stagnated if our communities are

01:07divided, if they segregate and with that I pray that we stay true to our word

01:14and you know what, the momentum that you've created, we have to continue this, this is a

01:20movement to better our communities, a movement to better ourselves.

01:5018. Jamie McGowan, Conservative and Unionist Party, 3,474.

02:02Denise Veronica Morgan, Green Party, 1,416.

02:11Craig John McMurry, Workers' Party of Britain, 7,105.

02:21Altaf Patel, Independent, 369.

02:28Taserath Shah, Independent, 86.

02:32Tommy Templey, Reform UK, 4,844.

02:42Adam John Thomas Waterslide, Liberal Democrats, 689.

02:50Numbers 12, ballot papers 163, the turnout of 53.3% and I do hereby declare that Adnan Hussain is duly elected.

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