UK pro-Palestine candidate pulls off shock win against Labour's Khalid Mahmood

Pro-Palestine independent candidate Ayoub Khan pulled off a shock win against Labour's long-standing parliamentarian Khalid Mahmood in the UK general election on Friday, winning the seat of Birmingham Perry Barr by a slim majority of 507 votes.

Khan secured 13,303 votes in total, winning with 35.5 percent of the vote share, while Mahmood, who has represented the constituency since 2001, received 12,796 votes and 34.1 percent of the vote share.

Khan, a local councillor and barrister by profession, resigned from the Liberal Democrats in May, claiming that "they wanted to prevent me from speaking about Gaza".

Campaigning on local issues such as the cost of living, crime and unemployment, as well as on Israel's ongoing war on Gaza, he received significant backing from the constituency's Muslim voter base. 

Read more: Pro-Palestine candidate pulls off shock win against Labour's Khalid Mahmood