Starmer facing a tough choice.

The problem Starmer has is that Labour have always polled rather well amongst both Muslims and Jews.

But it is very difficult to do that now with the situation in the middle east galvanising both to hate or mistrust each other.

The scenes we saw on October 7th in Israel, and the scenes in Gaza since then have galvanised both in partisan ways.

Treading a path that is acceptable to both sides is extremely difficult. When Labour supported the oppressed Palestinians they mostly had the Muslim vote in the bag, but Corbyn's previous associations with Hamas - real or exaggerated - and the highly effective weaponization and hugely exaggerated extent of perceived antisemitism put off many Jews. Though it is notable that the instant Starmer became leader this weaponization immediately stopped.

Now that Labour is led by someone who went along with the demonisation, has a Jewish wife (nothing at all wrong with that but bad actors amongst the Muslim community would use that against him) and leads a party highly sympathetic to Israel in spite of it having a far right government, and is crucially mostly silent about the oppression of the Palestinians, many Muslims are deserting Labour.

With extremist opinions widespread on both sides, it is difficult to see how Labour can keep both on side. And Labour's support for Israel will of course be exploited by bad actors like Galloway, whose ideological dishonesty in pursuit of his own agenda is clearly signposted by his support for economically left wing ideas being combined with support for right wing conservative social nostrums put about by Islamists.

You will for example often hear Galloway decrying grotesque levels of economic inequality yet having little to say very often about women's rights or gay rights, or social liberalism. He is clearly trying to latch on to the Muslim vote which Labour is losing, choosing constituencies with large numbers of Muslims to challenge Labour in. He is unlikely to win but he clearly hopes to damage Labour and thus be seen to be furthering his own cause and that of Muslims.

He aims to build a political fan base built upon socialism and islamism in uneasy combination, grafting the support of Muslims on to support from left wingers. In this way he plans to do a Farage on the left, building a coalition of support that can ultimately wag the establishment dog and drag it in his direction. He is unlikely to succeed in my view both because Muslims themselves are still a relatively small minority of the overall population and he is unlikely to persuade even all of these, and also because he lacks what Farage often enjoyed, which is widespread support amongst influential sections of the media.

But there are pockets in certain areas of high density population like in the big cities, where Muslims make up a large chunk of the local electorate, and he clearly hopes that in one of these he can cause an upset by actually winning and thereby entering parliament. And gaining massive publicity for his favourite cause, the promotion of the perceived importance of himself.