- Tuesday, April 22, 2025
The UK opposition party has tried to shed its stance on India under the leadership of Keir Starmer who has stressed on resetting the relationship.
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Labour Party has refused to back a motion over “alleged violence and rights abuses” in Jammu and Kashmir at its annual conference in Liverpool earlier this week.
The motion, which was put forward by the Birmingham Hodge Hill constituency Labour Party (CLP), a party unit, for debate at the conference, the Times of India reported.
Nearly 40 per cent of Hodge Hill’s population is of Pakistani origin. The motion was backed by Stoke-on-Trent Central CLP.
The motion said that the conference noted all United Nations (UN) resolutions to “this disputed territory” and urged a future Labour government to continue the recognition of UN resolutions in relation to the “rights of the Kashmiri people”.
The motion added that when in power, the Labour will work globally to reach a lasting settlement and bring the conflict in the region to an end and it will only be achieved “by bringing India and Pakistan together, working with the people of Kashmir”.
It also said, “We will never shy away from our responsibility to speak out against human rights abuses and attacks on democracy, no matter where they occur.”
According to the Times report, only 12 motions succeeded through the priorities ballot on Sunday (8) to get debated. The one on Kashmir got 1,480 CLP votes and zero affiliate votes and did not get debated. Its votes were much less than the 12 motions that went through.
One of them was on “Technology and AI in the workplace” that garnered 1.2 million affiliate votes and more than 3,800 CLP votes.
Neeraj Patel, founder of the Hindus for Labour platform, welcomed the fact that the motion did not go through and said it proved that Labour is not anti-Indian. He said the 2019 motion had offended India and sided with Pakistan.
“We want India and Pakistan to resolve their own issues and if they want the UK to be involved, a Labour government will,” he was quoted as saying by the Times report.
In September 2019, the Labour passed a resolution in a conference in Brighton supporting “international intervention in Kashmir and a call for UN-led referendum”.
The motion condemned the Narendra Modi government’s move in August the same year revoking Article 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution and the special status that was granted to Kashmir.
India reacted to the development saying the position taken by the Labour Party at the event was “uninformed and unfounded”. The Indian high commission in London even scrapped a customary dinner reception to the Labour and withdrew invitations, India Today had reported then citing a top official source.
The Labour’s stance vis-a-vis India has changed after Keir Starmer took over as its leader in 2020 succeeding Jeremy Corbyn, under which the party had a prickly relationship with India, even though it led to a debate.
In April the same year, Starmer said after a meeting with members of Labour Friends of India that a Labour government under his leadership would “be determined to build even stronger business links with India and to cooperate on the global stage on issues such as climate change”. His remarks had shocked those accusing the Modi government of assaulting basic liberties of Kashmiris.
In June this year, Starmer stressed on the importance of “modern India” to a Labour government provided the party wins the next general elections and said it was a “changed Labour Party”.
Speaking at the opening of India Global Forum’s fifth UK-India Week, the opposition leader said he was “resetting the relationship”.
Conceding that the Labour in the past sent the message that it could only see lives of communities that required its support, the party under his leadership was of the opinion that “working people in every community want success, aspiration and security” and hence the party was increasing Indian representation at all levels.
