Aimee Shalan says Palestine has become an electoral issue in Britain

Aimee Shalan, the incoming director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, says Palestine has become a domestic electoral issue in Britain, nationally and locally. Her assessment matters because candidates who campaigned on Gaza won several Labour seats in 2024. Those results show the issue’s force in particular constituencies, though they do not establish how many voters across Britain now make it a deciding factor.

Shalan told the Guardian ahead of a campaign protest at the Labour party conference that anger over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and Britain’s response was being expressed through elections as well as demonstrations, workplaces, trade unions and consumer campaigns. She is due to take over the PSC in November. Her description of a national electoral shift is the view of a campaign leader seeking stronger government action.

What the 2024 election showed

TIME reported after the 2024 general election that Gaza had barely featured in the wider national campaign but became a key issue in several constituencies long considered safe for Labour. Independent candidates in those seats made support for Palestinians central to their campaigns, and five succeeded in defeating Labour opponents. That contrast between the national campaign and individual contests is central to assessing Shalan’s claim.

One of those winners was Shockat Adam in Leicester South. TIME reported that he defeated senior Labour politician Jon Ashworth by fewer than 1,000 votes. In his victory speech, Adam described his effort as a grassroots, constituency-run campaign, raised a Palestinian keffiyeh and said, ‘This is for the people of Gaza.’ His account identifies an issue his campaign emphasised, without establishing the motive of every voter.

Polling reported by ITV News before that election also showed a marked difference between groups: 21% of Muslim respondents named Gaza as their most important election issue, compared with 3% of non-Muslim respondents. The June 2024 survey included 1,366 UK Muslims and 1,496 UK adults. It helps explain why the issue could carry particular weight in some contests, but it is a measure from that campaign, not of opinion today.

A movement seeking policy change

The PSC says its individual membership has grown from 7,800 at the beginning of 2023 to nearly 17,000, according to the Guardian. It also reported newsletter subscriptions rising from 70,000 to about 300,000 and said it had organised 36 national demonstrations since October 2023. These are the organisation’s own measures of its reach; they do not measure voter preferences or demonstrate that its campaigning changed an election result.

Shalan welcomed a shift in the Labour government’s approach to Israeli settlements but told the Guardian that the measures fell short of the PSC’s demands. She called for comprehensive sanctions on Israel and a two-way arms embargo. Her response shows the distinction between acknowledging a policy change and judging it sufficient; the available reporting does not establish that the PSC’s electoral campaigning caused the government’s decision.

The movement’s visibility has also brought disagreement. The Guardian reported that some politicians and campaign groups had raised concerns about antisemitism around pro-Palestinian demonstrations, while Shalan rejected descriptions of the marches as ‘hate marches’. That exchange records competing views about the protests; the interview did not resolve allegations about particular incidents.

The limits of the claim

Research published in the journal British Politics in 2026 describes declining Labour support among some South Asian Muslim voters and links disaffection largely to the party’s stance on Gaza. Its study of interviews in Bradford across the 2015 and 2024 general elections examines how voters judge whether representatives act in their interests. Its findings provide context for a change within a community, rather than proof of a nationwide electoral realignment.

Shalan pointed to the 2024 general election and 2026 local elections as evidence of pro-Palestinian candidates’ advances, the Guardian reported. The documented 2024 examples and earlier polling support a narrower conclusion: Palestine was salient for some voters and in some constituencies. They do not establish the extent of its influence in the 2026 local elections or show that it now determines outcomes across Britain.

The PSC plans to repeat its Pledge for Palestine campaign at the next general election, according to the Guardian. Shalan said the movement needed to organise before that vote. The reporting establishes an intended campaign, while its eventual electoral effect remains unknown. Future results and current national polling would be needed to judge how far the constituency pattern she identifies has spread.