'They will get me killed': Mothin Ali slams Starmer and Tory MP over smears in parliament
The Green Party's co-deputy leader, Mothin Ali, has told Middle East Eye he fears for his life and has faced death threats after a Conservative MP made a false claim about him in parliament which the prime minister appeared to agree with.
"They will get me killed," Ali told MEE on Tuesday morning, adding that "over the last couple of days I've received about 20 death threats".
Tory MP and former cabinet minister Alec Shelbrooke claimed, while asking a question to Prime Minister Keir Starmer in parliament on Monday, that Ali, a Leeds councillor, had been "protesting in support of the ayatollah".
The claims had circulated on social media after footage emerged on Saturday of Ali at an anti-war demonstration organised by the Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) to protest the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Shelbrooke said: "I was appalled - not shocked, I am afraid to say - as I am sure the PM was, to see at the weekend the deputy leader of the Green Party once again protesting in support of the ayatollah."
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He added: "The hatred and fear that runs through Leeds now, which has been whipped up at times by Councillor Mothin, is a disgrace."
Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded: "I think we were all shocked by the actions of the deputy leader of the Green Party - although perhaps not surprised, given that party’s recent turn of direction."
'He's let down the British public'
Ali told MEE he noted that the MP was protected from defamation law by parliamentary privilege. "He can say what he wants in there and get away with it. I want to see how brave he is. Will he repeat this outside parliament?"
Ali added: "The PM is just another coward and allied with the Tories.
"He's let down the British public and he needs to resign."
MEE asked Downing Street whether the prime minister would clarify his comments, and did not receive a response.
MEE asked Shelbrooke whether he would retract his statement and apologise to Ali, or if not, whether he would repeat the claim outside parliament, where he would be liable to legal recourse, and did not receive a response.
Ali said he is not a supporter of the Iranian government and attended the demonstration - at which some attendees held pro-Iran signs - after a strike on a school in Iran on Saturday morning.
At that point, dozens of girls were reportedly killed but now it is believed that the death toll was more than 153.
"A whole load of little girls had just been blown to bits," Ali said. "I'm not supposed to feel anything about that?"
"When black and brown kids get blown up no one cares."
He pointed out that false smears could also negatively impact him in the future. "If I left politics and went for a job interview, this is the first thing people would see online."
Green Party leader Zack Polanski accused Starmer on Monday afternoon of "blatant Islamophobia" and of "smearing a caring man of principle standing up for peace".
On Tuesday morning, Polanski said: "There's nothing the establishment is more scared of than a calm, kind, thoughtful gardener who happens to be a Muslim man in politics."
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