Liam Byrne has defeated former Respect Party Leader Salma Yaqoob and former Dudley Council leader Pete Lowe to become Labour’s candidate for the West Midlands Mayoralty. Despite endorsements from Unite and Momentum, Yaqoob came third. See more about the candidates here…
Congratulations to @liambyrnemp, Labour’s Candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands! pic.twitter.com/JycdLRsUdi
— West Midlands Labour (@WMLabour) February 6, 2020
UPDATE: The votes were as follows: Byrne came first in first preferences (3,105 out of 6,948 valid votes), Lowe was second (with 2,034) and Yaqoob third (1,809). After second preferences were redistributed, Byrne received 56.5% of the vote and Lowe received 43.5%.
The deadline to vote in Labour’s West Midlands Mayoral selection closed at midday today. The three candidates are:
- Liam Byrne
- Shadow Minister for Digital. Former Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Gordon Brown. Left *that* note.
- MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill since a 2004 by-election.
- Pitching himself as the candidate who can beat the Tories.
- Pete Lowe
- Former Leader of Dudley Council. National Officer for the managers’ union MIP.
- Endorsed by Unison, FBU, the Labour Homelessness Campaign, and the Musicians’ Union.
- Running a left-wing campaign focused on local government experience.
- Salma Yaqoob
- Former leader of the Respect Party
- Joined Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, now standing for the mayoralty on his economic platform
- Backed by Momentum
- Supported the pro-Hamas ‘Viva Palestina’ convoy
- Wrote an article in which she imagined Britain becoming an Islamic Republic
- Referred to the IHH terrorists on board the Mavi Marmara as “martyrs“
- Called the 2005 London 7/7 bombings a “reprisal event” for the Iraq war
- Shared a Rothschild conspiracy theory website
- Deleted all her tweets that continued the word ‘Zionist’. There were a lot.
- Said “Bin Laden and Blair had far more in common with each other than their divisions.”
Looks like a traditional Momentum vs Moderniser fight between Yaqoob and Byrne
The hard left’s choice for Labour’s West Midland mayoral candidate, Salma Yaqoob, has been caught deleting hoards of Tweets, all of which contain the word Zionist. Yaqoob’s move to cover-up her past comments comes after it was revealed earlier this week she pushed a Rothschild conspiracy – a Tweet she has also since deleted. At some point, Owen Jones and others will surely have to retract their endorsements…
The selection of tweets – which were preemptively archived in the name of politically transparency – include Yaqoob saying Zionists are active in promoting imperial wars; spoke of “Zionist crimes”; said “Zionist supporters can’t win moral argument”; called ‘Zionists’ heartless; and in a tweet to Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell, used the phrase “O go away u Zionist troll”.
Based on other Tweets from Yaqoob’s account that still exist, it is clear she and her team have deliberately targetted the word Zionist in the deleting spree. Did anyone think George Galloway’s former party leader wouldn’t come with this baggage?
Today Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott endorsed Salma Yaqoob as “a long standing [sic] ally of the LGBTQ community”. This is despite the wannabe candidate and former Respect Party leader calling homosexuality “a choice of lifestyle” on national TV, criticising LGBT inclusive education in the Parkfield School dispute, and acting as a spokesperson for a leading member of the Islamic Party of Britain which among its policy platform supports the death penalty for homosexuality. If she were a Tory Labour would be up in arms…
Guido can reveal that Yaqoob has long had an association with Yvonne Ridley, sharing a platform with her on multiple occasions. They clearly get on well.
Highlights from Yvonne include saying “Victory to Hamas!”, “the Zionists have tentacles everywhere”, and declaring “Milliband is a gutless, little weasel who lost more than his foreskin when he was circumcised.” Despite all this, from Owen Jones to Grace Blakely, the Labour Left continue to rally behind Yaqoob…
Salma Yaqoob is the Corbynites’ favourite to become Labour’s candidate for West Midlands. The former Respect Party candidate – accused of intimidation and homophobia – has been endorsed by Owen Jones, Jon Lansman, and Momentum. Yaqoob has previously supported the pro-Hamas ‘Viva Palestina’ convoy, made up part of the campaign team which supported the family of Abu Hamza, and wrote an article in which she imagined Britain becoming an Islamic Republic…
Now Guido can reveal that Yaqoob has also egged on the Rothschild conspiracy theory – a trope that even Momentum admit is anti-semitic.
In 2013 the wannabe candidate linked on Twitter to conspiratorial website about “Rothschild bankers” in Iceland and London, which itself pointed readers to a longer article hitting out at Rothschild “banking puppets”, asks readers to “End [the] New World Order”, and praises Viktor Orban’s Hungarian Government for “Kill[ing] The Rothschild Banks”. She is favourite to win the selection…
Momentum’s pick to be the next Labour candidate for West Midlands Metro-Mayor has put out some pretty professional looking material. But sadly for former Respect Party leader Salma Yaqoob, virtually none of it is her own work. Her main campaign video is completely ripped off from the US Democrats’ new socialist firebrand AOC…
Yaqoob isn’t the first Labour politician to nakedly plagiarise US Democrats. Disgraced Labour MP Kate Osamor stole her campaign victory speech from President Obama, and plagiarised her maiden speech. Plenty of Labour Party precedent…
Across the pond Joe Biden plagiarising Neil Kinnock’s ‘first in my family’ speech destroyed his presidential hopes in 1987. Sadly Guido somehow doubts it will do the same to the Momentum backed candidate…
For our American readers, Guido thought an introduction to Yaqoob was in order:
- She called the 2005 London 7/7 bombings a “reprisal event” for the Iraq war
- She was part of the campaign team which supported the family of Abu Hamza
- She wrote an article in which she imagined Britain becoming an Islamic Republic
- She attended a protest at which the Israeli flag was burned
- She referred to the IHH terrorists on board the Mavi Marmara as “martyrs“
- She endorsed the closure of the Israeli embassy in London
- She supported the pro-Hamas ‘Viva Palestina’ convoy
- She accused “Zionists [of abusing] the memory of the Holocaust to bolster support for today’s Israeli state“
- She is a staunch supporter of the boycotting Israel economically and culturally
The Corbynisation of the Democratic Party is not all one way…
Hat-tip: Milk Media @milkmedianewyor
