Your Party has to ‘tackle political apathy’, says Labour-beating councillor in UK’s youngest city

Bradford councillor Ismail Uddin beat Labour last year at the age of 19, as an independent candidate. And at a Your Party rally on 8 October, he said the new left party has to inspire hope in people that change is a very real possibility if people organise.

He insisted:

my experiences come from the ground up, from lived experiences with the people who live the struggle every single day, who continue to do so with a beautiful smile, from the single parents that are holding families together, from the young people fighting for a future they can believe in, from the protesters fighting to see a free Palestine. That’s what my grassroots look like. It’s activist, it’s raw, it’s real, and it’s absolutely powerful.

And that’s why I’m here, to give a bit of a youthful experience, a bit of a youthful perspective. And I’ve always been here to see another chance of change, which is why your party matters. Because it’s not just about my hope or your hope. It’s about tackling political apathy.

He added:

While some are easily being scapegoated, some are being pointed in the wrong directions. So it’s our job to show that change is entirely possible, convincing the people who stopped voting to start again.

As the Electoral Reform Society has noted, the 2024 general election “saw the second lowest voter turnout since the universal suffrage in 1928”. Just over half of Britain voted (28.8 million), while “over 19 million registered voters” didn’t participate and “an estimated 8.2 million eligible people” were “missing or inaccurately registered”.

Independent voices gain power in one of Britain’s youngest and most deprived cities

The city of Bradford has one of the youngest populations in both Britain and Europe. It is also one of the most deprived. Conservative-led austerity plus a long industrial decline has limited job opportunities in the city and ensured high unemployment levels. This has made crime a massive problem, leaving Bradford as one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

Uddin said he had engaged with politics from a young age, seeing teachers and youth workers struggle to cope with the gutting of key services under austerity. But his election as an independent has given him hope. As he explained:

I don’t have finances from big donors, or somebody else telling me what to do. I don’t get glossy red leaflets or any political leverage. But I can tell you what I do have. Freedom. Freedom to speak truth without a whip right behind me. Freedom to put my community before any council tax increase or before any party politics. I have the freedom to say what residents actually feel, whether it’s about SEND, or whether it’s about an animal incineration factory in my ward. I can say what needs to be said from my area.

His message is that it’s “entirely possible” to win and make a difference “when we mobilise, and we challenge, and we fight”.

Cities like Bradford deserve that hope. But as Uddin stressed, dealing with political apathy is a key area that requires the urgent attention of a new left party.

 

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A post shared by Cllr Ismail Uddin (@cllrismailuddin)

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/RCUK – The Rohingya Centre