At last week’s English local elections, at least 100 Muslim independent councillors were elected, adding to the dozens already in place and the four Muslim independent MPs elected in 2024. It was the clearest proof yet that, as well as populist parties of right and left, Britain faces a growing populist movement among its four million Muslims. While independents are the movement’s most prominent standard-bearers, it is also finding a home in the Green Party and Your Party.

 

Policy Exchange has established a new project to examine this movement, which we call “Islamopopulism.” This report examines the interlinked national bodies, The Muslim Vote (TMV) and Vote Palestine, which have arrived on the scene to promote Islamopopulism and direct Muslim voters to the candidates most able to “punish,” in TMV’s words, Labour and the Conservatives. We also look at the Islamopopulist movement on the ground in Birmingham, Blackburn and Newham.