A Labour candidate defeated by a pro-Gaza independent in the general election has called on the new MP to formally disown his supporters who she says waged a campaign of “intimidation, abuse and harassment” against her.
Heather Iqbal, who came second in the Dewsbury and Batley constituency to Iqbal Mohamed, who was running as an independent, called on her opponent to “take action and be explicit” in calling out her supporters for their actions.
A spokesman for the new MP said he condemned the abuse and negative campaigning but would “strongly reject” the idea that any of it came directly from his team.
Iqbal told the Guardian that before the general election, during local elections in May, groups of people gathered near polling stations in Dewsbury and Batley, shouting at voters: “You are not a Muslim if you vote Labour.”
The general election, she said, was worse: “In addition to the van with a megaphone screaming that I was a Zionist and an agent of genocide, we had activists being chased down the street, malicious content online about my white husband and my first name.
“There didn’t seem to be many limits to what one could do to support his campaign.”
Even after the campaign ended, Iqbal said, Labour supporters were branded “traitors and hypocrites” by Mohammed’s supporters, who tried to prevent them from holding positions in mosques or charities.
“What Iqbal Mohammed does about this will tell us everything we need to know about the MP he will be,” Iqbal said. “Denial and distancing simply won’t do, especially since there is a mountain of evidence of abuse by some of the campaign team he tagged in his Facebook posts.”
“We have the evidence – the abusive videos, the voicemails, the long WhatsApp messages. It’s time to acknowledge what his campaign team did to Labour activists and apologise.”
While campaigning in West Yorkshire, the Labour candidate said, members of her team were followed by a van bearing the face of the independent candidate, and their supporters shouted abuse at them.
The footage recorded at the time by Iqbal’s team and seen by the Guardian does not show the van but a voice amplified by a megaphone following them, urging voters to “boycott the Zionists, boycott the Labour party”. The video adds: “Don’t vote for the Zionists, don’t vote for the warmongers.”
A string of Labour councillors in Kirklees and elsewhere have resigned amid widespread anger over the death toll in Gaza following Israeli strikes after the October 7 massacre by Hamas, and what some in the party saw as insufficient condemnation of Israel by Keir Starmer and his team.
Anger was such that four pro-Gaza independents won seats in the House of Commons on July 4, including Mohamed and Shockat Adam, who beat Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth in Leicester South.
In addition to disavowing these actions, Iqbal said, the new MP should sign the Civility in Politics pledge led by the Jo Cox Foundation.
after newsletter promotion
“If he wants to bridge the huge, ugly divide that he and his independent supporters have created in Dewsbury and Batley, he needs to act and be explicit,” Iqbal said. “Half-hearted words about not wanting anyone to be upset are no use.”
Mohamed’s spokesman said the van with the megaphone was not following Iqbal or his team, but that “their paths crossed when the unfortunate incident took place.”
They added: “Our campaign was made aware of an isolated incident that took place a few days before the election, involving a verbal altercation. The police were called to investigate, and we believe no further action was taken.”
“We strongly reject any suggestion that our campaign used negative tactics during the election. We also want to make clear that any such behavior, whether by perceived supporters or the opposition, will not be tolerated.”
The MP had now signed Jo Cox’s civility oath, they said.
Anger over Gaza is part of a wider mood over the general election, in which levels of intimidation and threats against MPs and candidates have reached what Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said earlier this month were unprecedented levels.
All new MPs have been fitted with portable panic alarms, which sound a warning signal when triggered, the Guardian has learned. Previously, these alarms were available to MPs who requested them.
