Dewsbury (UK Parliament Constituency) - Politics

Politics

The seat has a substantial Muslim population. Aside from 1983 and 2010, the seat had been won by Labour at each election since 1935, although sometimes by narrow margins. In the light of increasing concern of Muslim extremism, The Labour Party candidate Shahid Malik had enjoyed a fairly large public media profile after his victory in 2005 in various TV appearances and interviews, strongly denouncing believers and adherents of such views; however, this is also a strong area for the British National Party, who obtained their highest vote in Britain (13.1%) in the 2005 general election, much of it taken at the Labour Party's expense. They also have a substantial vote at local level where in 2006 for the first time in the UK the BNP polled more votes than any other political party. However, at the 2010 general election, the BNP's popularity in Dewsbury fell (despite a substantial nationwide rise in support for the party over the previous five years) as they gained a mere 6% of the vote.