Labour counts cost of collapse in Muslim vote

A collapse in Labour support among Muslim voters who were opposed to war in Iraq was blamed for the party's loss of its important Birmingham city council.

Labour lost 11 seats in the city, with the Liberal Democrats ousting Labour in many areas with large Muslim populations, such as Sparkbrook, Aston and Nechells. The pattern was repeated in other parts of the country, with the Liberal Democrats becoming the main beneficiary.

Mohammad Naseem, the chairman of Birmingham Central Mosque, said: "There were a great many people who demonstrated against the war in Iraq and not just from the minority or religious communities." Asked if anger amongst worshippers at the central mosque was widespread, he said: "Up to the last man, they were against the Labour Party policies over the war."

In Leicester, home to another substantial Muslim community, Labour lost eight seats and the Liberal Democrats emerged as the single largest party on the city council.

Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary and MP for Leicester West, said: "Iraq is a Muslim country and local Muslims have been very, very concerned, and many of them very opposed to the war."

There were also signs of a backlash among Muslim voters in Luton, where Labour lost 13 seats, 11 of them to the Liberal Democrats.

Lord Rennard, the Liberal Democrat campaign chief, said: "In areas with ethnic minority populations, people were disappointed in the way Tony Blair went to war without United Nations approval. They remembered Charles Kennedy's message that we wanted a second resolution."

Labour also discovered hostility to the war in some areas with a strong left-of-centre, middle-class vote. The party lost 17 seats in Durham, with the Liberal Democrats winning power, and 10 in York, which was also won by the Liberal Democrats.

In Brighton & Hove, where there were boundary changes, Labour lost 20 seats and control of the council.

Andrew Cornwell, chairman of the Green Party, which picked up three seats in Brighton, said: "People saw that we were taking a principled stand against the war and Labour has lost voters as a result."

The Labour campaign was also undermined by the hostility of many party activists to the war in Iraq. It is believed to have been a factor in the party's failure to field candidates in a third of the seats contested in England. In many other areas, Labour struggled to get out its loyalists to campaign on the doorsteps.