UK left are learning wrong lessons from Mamdani’s win

Some in Labour believe the result shows how they can beat Reform. LabourList published an article titled “Winning like Mamdani: why Labour must get obsessive about the cost of living”. However, New York voters face affordability and housing challenges that don’t translate directly to Britain. The danger comes in applying lessons from a cosmopolitan area that do not fit the very different culture of this country, and in particular regions where Reform will battle hard.

Among the British campaigners for Mamdani was Corbyn, who phone-banked for him. On a Zoom call organised by the Democratic Socialists of America, Corbyn highlighted Mamdani’s anti-Israel position. According to exit polling, most of New York City’s Jewish community are clearly uncomfortable with Mamdani.

The mayor-elect has a troubling history. During university, he enforced an extreme “anti-normalisation” policy with any group that supported Israel’s existence, even refusing to work with left-wing organisation J Street, which he deemed insufficiently anti-Zionist.
In this election, Mamdani’s largest institutional backer was CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). In 2008, FBI Special Agent Lara Burns labelled it “a front group for Hamas”. Progressive social positions such as support for LGBTQ rights show that Mamdani is no Islamist himself. But his backing from Muslim Brotherhood-linked organisations is undeniable. In 2013, when Egypt erupted against Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi, Mamdani published a Twitter thread defending the Brotherhood. He’s attended mosques with imams connected to Brotherhood organisations. If organisations with documented Muslim Brotherhood links like CAIR are providing significant financial backing, what will they expect in return?

Mamdani refused to condemn the phrase “globalise the intifada”, seen by most Jews as a call to violence against Jews. He blamed New York City policing failures on Israel, saying in a speech in 2023: “When the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it’s been laced by the IDF” (ignoring the NYPD’s partnerships with 13 other countries).

What was once called the “greatest Jewish metropolis of all time” now has a mayor whose views alarm most members of its Jewish community. Mamdani has normalised a way of thinking about Jews that would have previously been unthinkable. British politicians are taking notes of his success. Mothin Ali, deputy leader of the Green Party, called himself the “Yorkshire Mamdani”. It was Ali who on October 7th said Palestinians had the right to “fight back”. Socialist influencer Aaron Bastani called the victor in New York “the best political communicator I’ve ever seen”.

British Jews should watch closely. Labour MPs will feel empowered to become increasingly anti-Zionist, falling deeper down the “vote Gaza” rabbit-hole. In combination with the increasingly fashionable and strident anti-capitalist rhetoric, this is fertile territory for anti-Jewish conspiracies.

The lessons from the past seem forgotten, as the left takes an overseas city election as proof that populism works. Who knows how much damage will be done to Britain and the Jewish community if Labour is tempted back down a path that was overwhelmingly rejected by the country in 2019.