Sectarianism? Family voting? No, what British Muslims are doing with their votes is called democracy | Taj Ali

Zack Polanski meets Muslim supporters outside the Green party HQ in Gorton, 20 February 2026. Photograph: Adam Edwards/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News.View image in fullscreenZack Polanski meets Muslim supporters outside the Green party HQ in Gorton, 20 February 2026. Photograph: Adam Edwards/Alamy Stock Photo/Alamy Live News.OpinionIslamSectarianism? Family voting? No, what British Muslims are doing with their votes is called democracyTaj AliI’ve been speaking to Muslims across the country, many of whom are deserting Labour. They are as angry about potholes, traffic and litter as anyone elseTaj Ali’s Guardian documentary, The Muslim Vote: Democratic threat or Islamophobic myth? | On the Ground, is out on Thursday 30 AprilTue 28 Apr 2026 08.00 EDTLast modified on Tue 28 Apr 2026 08.13 EDTShare‘An establishment whitewash … a blooming disgrace. And I promise you that our democracy is not in a healthy state.” Nigel Farage was furious. Not just because the Reform UK candidate, Matthew Goodwin, had lost to the Green party’s Hannah Spencer in the Gorton and Denton byelection, but because a month on, after an official investigation, Greater Manchester police concluded there was no evidence of “family voting”.The term family voting – a form of electoral fraud that refers to family members conferring, colluding or directing each other in the voting booth – seemed to come out of nowhere the day after that byelection result, circulating rapidly through the British political conversation before disappearing again. It became a talking point because the election observer group Democracy Volunteers raised concerns, saying it saw it happening in 15 of the 22 polling stations it observed. In the end, the police said they found “no evidence of any intent to influence or refrain any person from voting”.In the aftermath of the vote, much of the political right picked up the family voting thesis and ran with it. But what did they really think was going on? Was it Muslim men – the Gorton and Denton constituency is about 30% Muslim – forcing their wives to vote for Spencer, the charismatic Green candidate, because of the party’s focus on Gaza? Was it a sinister plot to direct votes away from Reform? Nobody seemed able to say. But the short-lived scandal only made sense because of a narrative that hangs in the air in modern Britain: that Muslims can’t be trusted with democracy.For the past few months, I have been speaking to people in Manchester and Birmingham as part of a forthcoming documentary for the Guardian about British Muslim voters. One of my conclusions is that the rise of the Green party – which dramatically overtook Labour in a YouGov/Sky poll in March – and other independent candidates, such as those who beat Labour in the shock victories of the 2024 election, has nothing to do with family voting, Muslim sectarianism or clan politics. It is about the disintegration of Labour’s historical base as voters feel as though they are being taken for granted. Only, this time, it’s not the white working class taking its votes elsewhere, but the rest of the working class.But, first, allow me a brief detour. I don’t want to create the impression that problematic electoral politics have never existed among Britain’s Muslim communities. As a British Pakistani, I am familiar with the clan-based biraderi politics that has occasionally reared its head in this country and was mentioned by some commentators in the aftermath of the Gorton and Denton vote. This…

This excerpt is published under fair use for community discussion. Read the full article at The Guardian — World.