Britain’s ruling Labour Party has been accused of running a sectarian advertising campaign in Sir Keir Starmer’s former seat of Holborn and St Pancras to appeal to Muslim voters, after the party condemned the Green Party for similar tactics. One featured Foreign Secretary Ed Miliban with the caption, “The situation in Palestine is a moral emergency. This Labour Government will not stand by.” It ran on the anniversary of the Octobher 7 attacks.
The Jewish Chronicle reported the ads on Tuesday, a month after they ran in October. The paper said Labour spent an estimated £1,000 to £1,500 on Facebook advertisements about Palestine. The ads targeted areas in nine constituencies, including Holborn and St Pancras, with large Muslim populations, according to the report.
In addition to the Ed Miliband ad, another quoted a line that Gaza is a “stain on the conscience of the world” and announced sanctions on imports from settlements.
The situation in Palestine is a moral emergency. This Labour Government will not stand by. pic.twitter.com/KazQ8tzt8M
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) September 8, 2026
A Labour spokesman said: “It’s perfectly usual to promote government announcements on our social media channels when they are made. These ads ran alongside posts about the government’s pledge to eradicate homelessness.”
Labour had itself criticized the Greens for similar campaigning. In February, Labour figures attacked Urdu-language leaflets in Gorton and Denton that asked voters to “punish” Labour “for Gaza.” In a separate campaign in Bristol Central in May 2024, Louise Ellman accused the Greens of “stirring division,” the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The Henry Jackson Society, whose analysis the paper carried, found that the mean Muslim population across the targeted seats was nearly four times the constituency average. It put the Muslim share at 62.4 percent in Bradford West, 21.7 percent in Holborn and St Pancras, and 21.4 percent in Bradford South. The analysis concerns the populations of the areas selected, not verified targeting of individual users by religion.
The Holborn and St Pancras by-election was won by Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, a hijabi Muslim immigrant from Somalia.
