‘It was pretty horrendous’: Jess Phillips booed by pro-Palestinian protesters after retaining seat

>In March 2012, the Respect Party won an unexpected by-election in the British city of Bradford, previously regarded as a safe Labour seat. This article examines the party’s campaign strategy and in particular how it courted South Asian Muslim voters. A dominant feature of South Asian Muslim politics in the UK has been community bloc voting along lines of kinship (biraderi). The use of kinship networks for political gain effectively disenfranchised many young people and women. We demonstrate how Respect used their experience of campaigning in constituencies with significant numbers of South Asian Muslim voters to achieve an unlikely victory in Bradford. A key strategy was to mobilise otherwise politically marginalised sections of the South Asian Muslim community by offering an alternative to the culture of patronage in Bradford whilst at the same time utilising certain community structures in order to gain their own bloc votes.

[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-856X.12057?journalCode=bpia](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-856X.12057?journalCode=bpia)

>When, in her hypocrisy, Salma Yaqoob chose to run against Naz Shah in 2017, she was not ignorant of these structures of power and how they operate. Neither was she ignorant of how they operated in the past, for example how George Galloway used biradri politics in 2015 when he claimed, amongst other things, that Naz had lied about the circumstances of her abusive marriage. In fact, Salma chose to leave the Respect party in 2012 partly because of George Galloway’s attitude towards women. If this wasn’t enough, Naz says she contacted Salma before the 2017 election, explaining the situation and asking her not to stand in Bradford West – not to harness the power of a misogynistic system against a woman from the community who is actively, and successfully, fighting against it.

>What followed was a campaign rife with misogyny. A campaign that had Yaqoob’s tacit agreement. This included a rally where a man said people should vote for the ‘most Muslim’ candidate, and another where a man likened Shah to a dog, claiming you ‘check a dog’s pedigree’, and that you need to look at her appearance and see what effect she’ll have on the next generation.

[https://labourlist.org/2019/10/why-has-labour-not-taken-naz-shahs-concerns-seriously/](https://labourlist.org/2019/10/why-has-labour-not-taken-naz-shahs-concerns-seriously/)

>Bethnal Green and Bow, with a population of approximately 45,000 Muslim residents, was [George Galloway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Galloway)’s best chance to defeat a Labour candidate in what became a “bitter single issue campaign” over King’s support for the [Iraq War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War).[^([19])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King#cite_note-street_fight-19) King described the contest as “one of the dirtiest … we have ever seen in British politics” and complained of “quite disturbing” anti-semitic and racial abuse. Galloway said Labour’s postal vote strategy in the seat was “close to illegal, if not illegal”.[^([19])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King#cite_note-street_fight-19)[^([20])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King#cite_note-beeb-20)

>Both candidates were given police protection, King after her car tyres were slashed and Galloway after receiving a death threat.[^([19])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King#cite_note-street_fight-19) King lost the seat by 823 votes, a 26.2% swing from King to Galloway.[^([21])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King#cite_note-21) King said that, whilst her support for the war in Iraq had been a major issue, false claims in the Bangladeshi press that she wanted to get rid of [halal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halal) meat had played a part in her defeat.[^([20])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King#cite_note-beeb-20)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oona_King)

Can someone explain to me why these people are targeting a women who has no power whatsoever is effecting the events unfolding in Palestine.

Do they really think that whoever they wanted to win would be able to do anything themselves. If they feel that strongly then aim all this hate and energy at the source ffs.

Watched this live.

Further made me feel justified in voting labour.

Labour is on right side of history and I doubt the landslide is anything short of a vindication.

Well I am shocked. Shocked, that religious extremists would act like that towards a woman.

Seeing Labour supporters all but justify this is pretty interesting.

The actual state of that independent candidate. We are screwed.

You reap what you sow. She has courted this crowd for years.

Everybody calling Farage a ‘fascist’ when this is the real threat

Anti-Genocide campaigners. Don’t let the media reframe this as tit for tat Hamas vs. Israel. UN, ICC and almost all major human rights and charity organisations fully acknowledge this as a genocide. No complexity, no debate.