This is the moment a Green Party councillor shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ after being elected to Leeds Council as he declared the victory a ‘win for the people of Gaza’.
Mothin Ali, 42, who won the Gipton and Harehills seat with 3,070 votes, said in his rowdy victory speech people are ‘fed up’ of being ‘let down’ by the Labour council.
He shouted: ‘We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu Akbar!’
Throughout the video there is arguing between the Green members and the other parties at the count – with people heard swearing and told to ‘shut up’.
Mr Ali, who regularly posts videos on his TikTok account, said his phone has been ‘ringing off the hook’ since the win.
Mothin Ali, who won the Gipton and Harehills seat with 3,070 votes, said in his rowdy victory speech people are ‘fed up’ of being ‘let down’ by the Labour council
Mr Ali was one of dozens of candidates who ran on a Gaza ticket at the local elections and managed to defeat a Labour candidate
Mr Ali is a qualified mufti, which is a Muslim legal expert who is empowered to give rulings on religious matters.
The accountant has lived in the Gipton and Harehills ward for 20 years and has a wife and three children.
He was one of dozens of candidates who ran on a Gaza ticket at the local elections and managed to defeat a Labour candidate.
Despite gains all over England from the Tories in the local elections, Labour lost control of Greater Manchester town Oldham after gains by Independents, some of whom abandoned Sir Keir’s party over Gaza.
Naheed Zohra Gultasib held her seat in the Pleck ward of Walsall. The politician was one of six Labour councillors in the local authority who quit the party in November over Sir Keir Starmer’s refusal to back a ceasefire in Gaza.
She said in her victory speech: ‘This is for Gaza, this is for Palestine. You showed [Labour] that they cannot take your vote for granted.’
Akhmed Yakoob, a pro-Palestinian independent candidate running for West Midlands mayor, secured nearly 20 per cent of the vote in the Birmingham area.
Mr Ali, who regularly posts videos on his TikTok account, has said on the platform: ‘Every single people have a right to fight back, every single people have a right to live free of occupiers’
He shouted in the video: ‘We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine . Allahu Akbar!’
Labour support plummeted in areas with a high Muslim population across the country.
Wards in council areas with the highest proportion of Muslim voters such as Blackburn, Bradford, Pendle, Oldham and Manchester, showed Labour support dropped by an average of 25 per cent.
Wards with Muslim populations higher than 10 per cent in Pendle saw Labour support decline, on average, by 43 per cent.
The electoral results could be a cause of concern for Mr Starmer as the hemorrhaging of votes could cost him valuable seats at this year’s upcoming general election.
The Labour leader has faced calls to change his policy on Gaza to win back Muslim support and it is understood members of his shadow Cabinet will raise the issue with him again in the coming days.
However, some polling experts believe that Muslim voters who have turned away from Labour this week are likely to have a ‘limited impact’ on results in the general election.
Chris Hopkins, the political research director at Savanta, told The Telegraph: ‘Labour’s vote falling away in some Muslim areas shows that the party still has plenty of work to do among some communities over its response to the conflict in Gaza.
Sir Keir Starmer has faced calls to change his policy on Gaza to win back Muslim support
Leader of the Workers Party of Britain George Galloway stands with supporters and party candidates as he commits to hundreds of candidates in the general election
‘That said, it’s likely to have a limited impact at a general election, when constituencies are larger and the vote determines the next government rather than local authority control.’
James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners and a former Downing Street pollster, said the places of most Muslim voters tended to already be in safe Labour seats so the protest votes might not have a huge effect.
But he pointed to one survey which found one in four British Muslims name the Israel/Palestine conflict as their most important election issue compared with just three per cent of the public.
Pat McFadden has admitted the crisis in Gaza has been an ‘issue’ and ‘does get raised’ when asked about Labour’s loss of control in Oldham.
The party’s national campaign coordinator told BBC Breakfast over the weekend: ‘I do think that’s been a factor in some places, I don’t think there’s any point in denying that. It does get raised, and I understand why people have strong feelings about that.’
He said that with ‘so many innocent people being killed I’m not surprised people have strong feelings about that’.
But Mr McFadden added: ‘In addition to the Middle East issue which you mentioned there are specific very local factors in Oldham which have knocked it out of line with the Labour gains we’ve been seeing in local elections.’
Former Labour MP George Galloway has also sought to capitalise on the Gaza issue, winning the Rochdale by-election in February and saying he will challenge Labour with a series of pro-Palestinian candidates at the general election.
It comes after figures released by Labour’s National Executive Committee last month showed the party has suffered an exodus of more than 23,000 members in the previous two months.
Radical left wing group Momentum warned Sir Keir ‘is alienating swathes of Labour’s core support’ and that alarm bells should be ringing within the party.
There has also been a mass walkout of at least 70 councillors which caused Labour to lose control of councils in Oxford, Hastings, Norwich, and Burnley.
In November, 56 Labour MPs defied Sir Keir to vote for the SNP’s call for a ceasefire, with 10 frontbenchers quitting.
Jess Phillips was one of the most high profile shadow ministers to sensationally quit.
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