Labour’s 2019 Kashmir motion not party policy, says India group

The September 2019 motion adopted at Labour’s annual conference, seeking international intervention in the Kashmir issue and a referendum, is not the party’s official policy, co-chairmen of the Labour Friends of India group within the party insisted on Monday.

The resolution, adopted when Jeremy Corbyn was party leader, sparked a diplomatic row and cost the party many votes from the 1.5 million strong Indian community in the December 2019 elections. Under new party leader Keir Starmer, the party has been keen to win back support.

Co-chairmen Labour MP Darren Jones and deputy mayor of London Rajesh Agarwal admitted to members of the Indian Journalists Association that the party lost ground in the community, but insisted that under Starmer the party has begun the long process of rebuilding trust.

Labour has long been the party of preference of the Indian community, but younger, aspirational members have gravitated to the Conservative party in recent years, particularly after David Cameron assiduously wooed the community when he took over as party leader in 2005.

Jones, MP for Bristol North-West, said“We have to be honest about this. We not only lost Indian votes but votes of others (in December 2019). Starmer has been keen to rebuild trust and the historic relationship with India and the community here”.

“The Kashmir motion is not party policy. In future you won’t see that happening again. You will see a different style of leadership under Starmer, who is going around the country listening and engaging with people”, he added.

According to Indore-born Agarwal, “all sorts” of motions are adopted at conferences. Labour MPs speak on behalf of their constituents, but that does not necessarily mean their perspectives become party policy.

He said: “No doubt we have lost some Indian votes, we need to work harder. We have a long way to go, but we can do it”.

“Starmer has already made it clear that we must not allow issues of the sub-continent to divide communities here. Any constitutional issues in India are a matter for the Indian Parliament and Kashmir is a bilateral issue for India and Pakistan to resolve peacefully,” he added.

As part of the party’s efforts to regain support, a Mahatma Gandhi Future Leaders Programme is to be launched on October 2 to encourage people from the community to join politics at various levels. Starmer, Agarwal said, is keen to visit India next year.

Set up in 1999, the Labour Friends of India group includes MPs as well as others. According to Agarwal, it is now a community-led group rather than one led by the “Westminster bubble”, though the distinction was not entirely clear.

Labour has seven Indian-origin MPs in the current House of Commons, its highest from the community so far: Navendu Mishra (Stockport), Virendra Sharma (Ealing Southall), Slough (Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi), Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston), Preet Kaur Gill (Birmingham Edgbaston), Lisa Nandy (Wigan) and Valerie Vaz (Walsall South).