With Reform UK making significant headway in white working-class Brexitland and pro-Gaza independents making their mark in areas with notable South Asian Muslim populations, Labour’s so-called “supermajority” is less solid than it looks. But there is one part of the country which has provided steadfast comprehensive electoral support for the party in recent times.
Labour’s most loyal and deepest heartland is now South London, especially in the constituencies with relatively high non-Muslim black populations which do not care for the Right. Rather, they are concerned about bread-and-butter issues such as the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and are not as emotionally invested in the Gaza crisis.
While Labour nearly lost new Health Secretary Wes Streeting as the MP for Ilford North at the hands of pro-Gaza independent Leanne Mohamed, it had no such struggles in South London. In Lewisham East, which has a black population of 27% according to the 2021 Census, Labour’s Janet Daby was re-elected with 58% of the vote — a majority of over 18,000 votes. In Erith & Thamesmead, where nearly three in 10 voters are black (29%), Daby’s party colleague Abena Oppong-Asare was re-elected with 55% of the vote — a majority of over 16,000. Elsewhere, Labour candidates won the new Vauxhall and Camberwell Green constituency with a majority of over 15,000 votes and in Peckham by a similar margin.
https://unherd.com/newsroom/south-london-is-labours-new-heartland/
