Shabana Mahmood, the UK’s new Secretary of State for Justice, brings a troubling record to her new role. In 2014, she was accused of promoting “mob rule” after leading a protest backing the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, forcing a Sainsbury’s in Birmingham to close for hours. Taking the law into her own hands…
She later boasted of the Sainsbury’s shutdown to a rally:
“Last week I was with 200 activists outside in the centre of Birmingham and we lay down in the street and we lay down inside Sainsbury’s to say that we object to Sainsbury’s stocking goods from the illegal settlements and that they must stop. We managed to close down that store for 5 hours at peak time on a Saturday. This is how we can make a difference.”
At the time, she was slammed by Mike Freer, then MP for Finchley and Golders Green: “For any Parliamentarian to encourage mob rule as a way of protesting is shameful.” Is this the sort of enforcement of justice Mahmood will be promoting as the new Secretary of State?
Richard Tice didn’t rule out letting Shabana Mahmood join Reform, telling GB News:
“Well obviously she would have to go through the usual vetting process… people have got to believe in our principles and values, that’s the key thing.”