How independent MPs transformed British politics

No one in Britain’s national media was surprised on election night a year ago when Keir Starmer’s Labour swept to power in a landslide.

It was the result the entire country had expected. 

More surprising was the success of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, which saw five MPs elected. 

Commentators had extensively debated the anti-immigration party’s prospects on radio shows, television panels and podcasts. Many were vindicated by Reform’s success, while others were left surprised.

Then there were the Greens – they did much better than most pollsters had predicted, winning an unprecedented four seats, up from just one. 

But the real shock of the night was the election of five pro-Palestinian independent MPs. 

Next to no one in the mainstream media had seen this coming. None of the polls had forecasted these wins.

The Labour MPs that lost their seats seemed shell shocked. The independents – who months later formed a parliamentary grouping, the Independent Alliance – had well and truly stunned the political class.

A year on, and they have truly made their mark.

‘I was raised in this community. I know their struggles. Gaza is important and it’s the reason why I stood. But poverty is a massive issue too’

– Adnan Hussain, independent MP for Blackburn

As a parliamentary grouping they have as many MPs as Reform. They have worked extensively with Labour backbenchers, as well as Green MPs and some Liberal Democrats.

The independents have championed anti-establishment positions on a range of hot-button domestic political issues.

Significantly, they have shaped and even defined the nature of parliamentary debates on Israel’s war on Gaza. 

Now it is expected that a new political party will form in the coming weeks, to be comprised of independents and defectors from Labour. 

On Thursday Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced that she had resigned from Labour and would lead a new party with former Labour leader and independent MP Jeremy Corbyn.

Sultana cited the Starmer government’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza as one reason for leaving, saying that “this government is an active participant in genocide”.

None of the other four independents have confirmed they will be part of the new party. But contrary to what many predicted when they were elected, the independents are unlikely to be just a passing blip on the political stage.

Amid the meteoric ascent of Reform, they are forming part of the end of the old two-party system – and a dramatic reshaping of British politics. 

A political earthquake 

Analysis shared with MEE showed that in the 20 constituencies with the highest proportion of Muslims, the Labour party’s share of the vote dropped in the 2024 election by between 15 percent and 45 percent. 

Anger at the Labour Party’s support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza played a defining role in this, although that anger wasn’t just confined to Muslims.

And the independent MPs also all ran campaigns that expressed a more general disenchantment with the political establishment and opposition to Conservative and Labour domestic policies.

MEE followed Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South who unseated Labour’s shadow cabinet minister Jonathan Ashworth, during the campaign.

MEE watched Adam campaign in a popular Portuguese cafe in his constituency.

“We are living in a world now where people sometimes try to divide us,” he told a crowd of mainly Portuguese punters, “and that’s why it’s so important that we all work together to make sure we all stay united.”

Leicester South had been a safe seat for the Labour Party for decades. Adam, an optician by training, said he was standing to disrupt the two-party system and represent people who felt they were no longer being heard by the political class. 

For Labour, his win was one of the biggest upsets of the general election.

“This is for the people of Gaza,” Adam declared in his victory speech as he raised aloft a keffiyeh.

Barrister Adnan Hussain, who ran a legal practice, was elected in the northwestern ex-industrial town of Blackburn, which was represented by Labour MPs for 69 years, since 1955.

Hussain’s arrival on the political scene changed everything.

He was backed by a group of former Labour councillors who quit the party over its Gaza policy.

“I was raised in this community,” he told MEE at his legal practice surrounded by his team during the campaign.

“I talk their language. I know their struggles. Gaza is important and it’s the reason why I stood. But poverty is a massive issue too and so is healthcare.”

In the West Yorkshire constituency of Dewsbury & Batley, Iqbal Mohamed was elected with a thumping victory – gathering nearly twice as many votes as the Labour candidate.  

Mohamed, who was born and raised in Dewsbury, is an engineer and IT consultant.

Formerly a Labour member, he quit over party leader Keir Starmer’s early support for Israel’s war on Gaza after the 7 October Hames-led attacks on southern Israel. 

And in the West Midlands seat of Birmingham Perry Barr, Ayoub Khan unseated Labour’s long-standing parliamentarian Khalid Mahmood.

A local councillor and barrister by profession, Khan resigned from the Liberal Democrats in May 2024, claiming that “they wanted to prevent me from speaking about Gaza”.

He campaigned on local issues like the cost of living crisis, crime and unemployment, as well as on Israel’s war on Gaza.

An alliance is formed

All four of these MPs arrived in parliament as outsiders. Their situation couldn’t have been further from that of the fifth pro-Palestine independent, Jeremy Corbyn – who had gone into the previous election as leader of the Labour {arty.

An MP since 1983, Corbyn led Labour from 2015 to 2020, but was barred by the party from standing as a candidate and then expelled when he announced his intention to run anyway.

He won almost 50 percent of the vote in Islington North, the London constituency he has represented for more than four decades.

“Palestine was on the ballot,” the veteran left-winger and lifelong pro-Palestine campaigner told MEE after the election. 

The independents met each other for the first time on 8 July, just days after the election. It soon became clear they would work together.

“During my campaign,” Hussain told MEE this week, “my opponents argued I’d be a lone voice on the back benches with neither power nor influence. My experience over this year has been far removed from this suggestion.

“I strongly believe the Independent Alliance has been a strong voice at the forefront of much debate in parliament.”

Mohamed agreed.

“When I met the other independent MPs on 8 July it was like five magnets coming close to each other and automatically sticking together as one,” he recalled.

Now he feels firmly established in parliament.

“All cross-party members know who we are, what we stand for and that we are not there for ourselves,” he said.

‘All cross-party members know who we are, what we stand for and that we are not there for ourselves’

– Iqbal Mohamed, Independent Alliance MP

“Several cross-parties MPs have said that we have positively surprised many in the Commons, that we are punching above our weight and have been effective at holding the government’s and main opposition’s feet to the fire,” he added.

Adam reflected that “the only scenario worse than being the sole independent MP would have been aligning with people who share no values or common ground.

“Five individuals who initially didn’t know each other have formed not just a strong political alliance but genuine friendships. We’ve respectfully navigated our differences and worked collectively on critical issues.”

Corbyn told MEE that in the year since the election the independent MPs “have worked very well together and we learn a lot from each other.

“We share a deeply held belief: that we are accountable to our communities, and that the way you achieve change is by building power from below.”

Sectarian politics?

The dust had barely settled on the results when many commentators began denouncing the election of independent candidates as evidence of “sectarian” politics.

Sectarianism is commonly defined as “narrow‐minded adherence to a particular sect,” usually ethnic or religious.

These allegations have persisted over the past year.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, for example, claimed the independents were elected on the back of “sectarian Islamist politics, alien ideas that have no place here”.

She didn’t explain what these “alien ideas” are, nor where Corbyn – who is not a Muslim – fits into this supposed sectarian cabal.

In January this year, former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss claimed on a podcast that the Muslim independents were “Islamist MPs”.

“There is an ideology of Islamism which has become more powerful in British politics.” Bizarrely, she went on to suggest that Islamism was connected to “climate change extremism”. 

Meanwhile Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, who many pollsters see as a potential future prime minister, has repeatedly linked the independents to supposed “sectarianism” and warned of Islamist influence in British politics.

He predicted in March that there would be “between 20 to 30 pro-Gaza MPs” at the next general election.

But the independents have consistently failed to live up to the sectarian label.

For example, Hussain responded to January’s furore over grooming gangs by backing a public inquiry into the crisis, opposed at the time by the government, and calling for the perpetrators to be “made an example of as a strong deterrence and warning to others”.

And in December, he took to social media to announce that “I chose a photograph inside Blackburn Cathedral for my Christmas card this year as it reflects the heart of everything that Blackburn is and can be.” 

To call this Muslim sectarianism might stretch the definition somewhat. 

It’s not just Hussain. Scan Adam’s X account and photos of the MP at events hosted by every religious community in Leicester appear.

In October he marked Rosh Hashanah by wishing “renewal, joy and peace” for Leicester’s Jewish community, posting an Instagram reminder of the “rich Jewish culture within Leicester”. 

Adam recently defended the traditional Christian prayers that are read at the start of Commons sittings, after Labour MPs called for the practice to end.

“Prayers in the House of Commons are part of our Christian heritage and Parliament’s traditions,” he insisted. Another raging sectarian?

Often it has been hard for the MPs to escape smears. In March, Mohamed fell victim to a case of mistaken identity when Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge falsely suggested he had been suspended from Labour for alleged antisemitism.

Ridge had apparently confused him with a former Labour councillor named Mohammed Iqbal, with whom the parliamentarian Iqbal Mohamed has no connection. Sky News later issued an on-air apology.

“The ease with which the mainstream media throw around baseless allegations of antisemitism against those critical of Israel’s genocidal actions against the Palestinians is deeply concerning and shameful,” an unsurprisingly annoyed Mohamed told MEE at the time.

“This should never have happened in the first place.”

Advocating for the poorest

The independents have campaigned on a range of policy issues, particularly welfare – including opposing the government’s two-child benefits cap and its welfare reform bill.

Hussain told MEE that “we have been at the centre of pushing for traditionally Labour policies, representing a demographic, the working class, that the Labour party no longer does.

“Locally, I have been committed to meeting as many local organisations, businesses and individuals as possible, having met well over 100 to date.

“I’ve pushed the government in regards to health inequalities in Blackburn, and better access to GPs which will work to ease the pressure on our hospital – which is constantly on red alert.”

‘One day I was meeting the king at Buckingham Palace; that same evening, I was helping someone facing homelessness’

 – Shockat Adam MP

Adam serves as an officer in the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) on eye health and special educational needs and disabilities. He also helped to establish an APPG on Interfaith. 

He told MEE he was “proud” to advocate for “the removal of VAT on the refurbishment of our historic churches”.

“The sheer variety of this role is extraordinary. One day I was meeting the king at Buckingham Palace; that same evening, I was helping someone facing homelessness.”

Meanwhile, Corbyn said that everything he does in parliament “is traced back to the people I have met, listened and learned from in my own constituency of Islington North”.

“Yes, we raise our voices on Palestine, but we have also been speaking out collectively against this government’s attacks on the poorest in our society,” the former Labour leader told MEE.

“Together, we have campaigned against the government’s decision to keep the two-child benefit cap, cut universal winter fuel allowance and slash disability benefits.”

He added: “We are pushing to change the government’s entire ethos on public spending. 

“Why is it that the government can always find enough money for war, but never enough for the poor?”

‘A genocide is taking place’

The independents have strenuously opposed the Starmer government’s cooperation with Israel.

They have faced heavy obstacles in making their voices heard on Gaza: none of them made it onto the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which scrutinises the government’s foreign policy. This is unsurprising, since they are not members of any party.

However, the Alliance has still played an enormous role in shaping political discourse surrounding Israel’s war on Gaza.

“When we first arrived in parliament,” Hussain recalled, “the issue of Gaza was raised in a very tepid manner.

“The Alliance raised the loudest voice and refused to mince our words. We believe a genocide is taking place and we said, and continue to say as much, over time.”

He adds that “we are no longer lone voices, but now joined by a loud chorus of others, cross party, who agree. 

“I strongly believe the Alliance played a vital role in influencing this shift.”

‘Why is it that the government can always find enough money for war, but never enough for the poor?’

– Jeremy Corbyn MP

Corbyn said that “people of all faiths and none, right up and down the country, are appalled by their government’s inhumanity, and have been calling for an end to all arms sales to Israel. 

“It is so important that they know – and they see – that they have representation in Parliament.”

Adam, who toured Israel and the occupied West Bank with Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George in April, submitted a bill to parliament to formally recognise a Palestinian state late last year.

It gathered significant support from MPs but failed to pass.

However, the independents have held the government’s feet to the fire on serious issues rarely covered in the press.

One is the fact that RAF Shadow aircraft have conducted hundreds of surveillance flights over Gaza throughout Israel’s war on the besieged enclave.

In response to questions about these flights, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has repeatedly insisted they are in support of “hostage rescue”.

On 18 March a rare debate, secured by Adam, was held in parliament’s Westminster Hall on military cooperation with Israel.

Corbyn and Hussain sat beside Adam as he directed a series of forensic questions to the armed forces minister.

While the debate did not yield much information from the government, it saw facts about Britain’s ties with Israel – which the government doesn’t usually speak about – aired publicly. 

“If hundreds of UK flights have taken place over Gaza, what have we witnessed?” Adam asked. “What crimes, if any, have we seen?”

The debate saw interventions from Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat MPs, many of whom regularly sign letters and propose motions along with the independents.

At one point in the evening, Hussain stood up to ask Adam whether he agreed that “allying with Israel while it carries out a genocide will bring about the end of the international world order as we know it”.

Adam responded: “I completely concur with the honourable member’s timely intervention.”

This was just one example of how independents have injected a new tenor and type of language into political discourse about Gaza.

And they have surely caused great embarrassment to the government.

Issues the media ignores

In April this year MEE revealed a clandestine trip by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to Britain, where he met Foreign Secretary David Lammy. 

The meeting wasn’t announced by the foreign office and the trip received next to no coverage in the national press until Saar had left the country.

But despite the lack of media coverage, this secretive meeting with a representative of a government accused of widescale human rights abuses drew heavy criticism from the independents.

Khan told MEE at the time that the meeting was “utterly disgraceful and profoundly disappointing” that Lammy met Saar, especially “at a time when Israel is carrying out one of the most devastating and brutal military campaigns in recent history”.

“Saar’s visit should never have been allowed,” Khan insisted. “His rhetoric and policies stand in direct contradiction to international humanitarian law and basic human decency.”

Mohamed added: “The Israeli foreign minister should not be given a welcome in this country while his country continues its onslaught on the Palestinian people, murders its health workers and bombs its hospitals, residential homes and places of worship.”

Then in June, MEE revealed that in April 2024, David Cameron, then foreign secretary in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government, privately threatened to defund and withdraw from the International Criminal Court if it issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.

Cameron made the threat in April 2024 in a heated phone call with Karim Khan, the British chief prosecutor of the court.

Khan and the British Foreign Office declined to comment and Cameron didn’t respond to MEE’s requests for comment.

Politico EU picked up MEE’s report and cited a source confirming the call took place.

Remarkably, however, no major British news outlet picked the story up.

But again, the independents were vocal on the matter.

Khan called for a parliamentary investigation into MEE’s report. Corbyn described the revelation as “shocking”. Mohamed said the allegations “deserve urgent and transparent scrutiny in Parliament”.

And Adam added that “it is outrageous for ministers to interfere in the workings of the international justice system – particularly as the UK is one of its main architects”.

Significantly, Corbyn has tabled a bill for an independent public inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Corbyn told MEE he would expect any inquiry to investigate the report that Cameron as foreign secretary threatened that the UK would defund the ICC.

The government previously rejected Corbyn’s bill and it returns to parliament on Friday 4 July. It is expected that a government whip will object to the bill being debated. 

But significantly, the bill is supported not just by Khan, Hussain and Adam but also by some Labour, Green, Liberal Democrat and Scottish National MPs in a strong indicator of how the independents have built strong connections on issues of policy with MPs across party lines.

A new political party?

“This year has felt like the longest and shortest year of my life,” Mohamed reflected.

“The longest because I feel I have done more in the past year than the previous ten years. And the shortest because the campaign and the election seem like a few weeks ago.

“This seat belongs to my constituents and I will never forget that. I try and give my all everyday to help as many people as possible and make a positive difference to Parliament and politics.”

Mohamed said he aims to continue to focus on the challenges facing his constituents “such as housing, tackling poverty and crime, lack of youth services and fighting to get Dewsbury Sports Centre and Batley Baths reopened.”

‘Come next election I am hopeful there will be a united voice for equality, sustainability and peace’

 – Jeremy Corbyn MP

He added that “I want to build bridges – between communities, and between Parliament and the people. That is how we create lasting positive change.”

There will much more to come.

It is expected that the new party led by Corbyn and Sultana will be launched in the coming weeks.

“Come next election I am hopeful there will be a united voice for equality, sustainability and peace,” Corbyn told MEE. 

There is speculation that it could have a dozen MPs – including some defectors from Labour – which would make it a significant and prominent parliamentary grouping, and a serious headache for the Starmer government. 

This major and unprecedented upset will transform the political scene. Discontent over Labour support for Israel’s war on Gaza has formed one of the biggest reasons for this.

Many commentators predicted a year ago that the independents would be remembered as a minor glitch in the political system.

Instead they have introduced an extraordinary new dynamism into British politics. 

And as the two-party status quo breaks down, they are set to be an important force in the years to come.