More than 1,000 UK councillors sign Palestine pledge as local polls loom 

More than 1,000 councillors in England have signed a pledge in support of Palestinians ahead of local elections in May.

Launched by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in December, the Councillor Pledge for Palestine is urging politicians to take steps to “uphold the rights” of Palestinians, “stand up to Israel for its crimes of genocide and apartheid” and ensure their councils “are not complicit”.

According to the campaign, 1,152 sitting councillors have signed the pledge. Of those, 387 are from the Green Party, 375 from the governing Labour Party and 115 from the Liberal Democrats.

Five councillors from the Conservative Party are among the signatories, along with hundreds more from the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru, the Scottish Greens and local parties, or who serve as independents. No candidates from the far-right Reform UK have signed the pledge.

The initiative, which will be opened to all candidates in March, is supported by Vote Palestine, a grassroots campaign coordinated by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and backed by the Palestinian Youth Movement Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain, The Muslim Vote and the British Palestinian Committee.

It aims to pressure councils to adopt policies aligned with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, including divesting pension funds from companies linked to Israeli arms production.

Local Government Pension Scheme funds, administered by councils, invest more than 12.2 billion pounds ($16.5bn) in companies that are complicit in violations of international law, according to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Thirty-one councils have passed motions or issued statements supporting divestment of pension funds, the campaign says. It notes 46 percent of voters back divestment, compared with 14 percent who oppose it.

Supporters describe the movement as inspired by the anti-apartheid campaign of the 1980s, when more than 100 local authorities banned South African goods from their offices and schools, and others ended pension fund investments in companies with South African subsidiaries.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has endorsed moves to make Palestine a central issue in the 2026 local elections. In a post on X, he wrote: “Let’s make the Palestinian issue non-negotiable in this election.” He called on campaigners to back a “people’s pledge”, whereby supporters promise to support only those council candidates who have backed Vote Palestine.

Signatories of the “candidates’ pledge” include Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali and Trafford councillor Hannah Spencer, a by-election candidate in Gorton and Denton; Matthew Brown, Labour leader of Preston City Council; and Ayoub Khan, an independent member of Parliament and Birmingham councillor.

The May local elections are widely seen as a litmus test for the Labour government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which has faced declining poll ratings since it was elected in 2024. Critics within and outside the party have linked some of the discontent to its handling of Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

With every council seat in London – traditionally a Labour stronghold – up for election, campaigners believe Vote Palestine could influence results in closely contested areas.

In Hackney, north London, where Labour currently holds a large majority, the party faces a challenge from the Greens and the Independent Socialists. All six of the borough’s Green councillors have signed the pledge, compared with three from Labour.

“We’ve all seen the devastation caused by Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but none have felt it more deeply than Hackney residents I’ve spoken to who have lost family members in Palestine,” said Zoe Garbett, a Green councillor in Hackney who is running for mayor.

“The council took a stand against South African apartheid, and now it’s time we make a similar stand for the Palestinians.”

Left-wing figures within Labour have also endorsed the pledge. Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds East, said: “Keir Starmer’s refusal to stand up for the rights of the Palestinian people is wrong and has already badly hurt Labour at the polls. We saw that in the last general election, and I fear we will see it again in the May local elections.”

He added that the government “needs to listen” to members “demanding action against Israel’s genocide and war crimes and do so before even more damage is done and we lose more hard-working, principled councillors”.

The election campaign comes amid legal challenges surrounding the Palestine Action activist group. Earlier this month, the High Court ruled that a decision to proscribe the group under antiterrorism legislation was unlawful, but the ban remains in place after the Home Office was granted an appeal to challenge the ruling.

One of its alleged members, Amu Gib, is standing as a candidate for Islington Council in London’s Finsbury Park while in prison. He went on a hunger strike for 49 days last year.

Gib was arrested by counterterrorism police in connection with an alleged break-in at RAF Brize Norton, the United Kingdom’s largest air force base. The trial is ongoing. The charges relate to allegations that aircraft used to support Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza were vandalised.

Gib also took part in the Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike, which ended after the government decided not to award a contract worth 2 billion pounds ($2.7bn) to Elbit Systems UK, an arms company.

In a statement sent from prison, Gib told Al Jazeera that they were running on a platform calling for “no more endless wars”, as well as action on housing and food poverty. If elected, campaigners say they would be the first prisoner chosen for public office in the UK while imprisoned since Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands won a parliamentary seat in 1981.

Dan Iley-Williamson, a political organiser at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “The mass movement for Palestine – which has brought millions onto Britain’s streets – is not going away. Vote Palestine will take our demands into the May elections and deliver a message to those seeking office: If you want our votes, stand up for Palestine.”