Fears that the Batley and Spen by-election would sound the death knell for the long relationship between Labour and British Muslims proved unfounded, but it was a close-run thing

After the most bruising campaign in recent political history, Kim Leadbeater, sister of previous MP Jo Cox who was murdered by a neo-Nazi terrorist in 2016, emerged victorious with a wafer-thin Labour majority of 323 votes, less than a tenth of her party’s winning margin in the 2019 general election.

The poll focused media attention on the substantial Asian population in the constituency, and with good reason. With 8,626 Muslim votes calculated to be up for grabs, Labour was vulnerable to a challenge from George Galloway, foghorn advocate of Palestinian and Kashmiri causes. Reincarnated as leader of the minuscule Workers Party, he stormed into the West Yorkshire constituency with the avowed disruptive aim of winning enough votes to let in the Tories and force Sir Keir Starmer into a leadership crisis.