Dewsbury and Batley Labour Candidate Told You're “not a proper Muslim”

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Heather Iqbal, a Labour candidate in Dewsbury and Batley, revealed that she faced intense scrutiny and harassment during her election campaign, including being told she was “not a proper Muslim” due to her Western first name. Iqbal Mohamed, the independent MP who defeated her, did not intervene when his supporters targeted her with these attacks, according to Ms. Iqbal.

 

In an interview with *The Telegraph*, Ms. Iqbal described the hostile environment surrounding the campaign, which included being chased down the street and accused of being a “child murderer” and a “genocide agent.” Supporters of Mr. Mohamed reportedly used a loudspeaker van that broadcast accusations labeling Labour as a Zionist party. Ms. Iqbal explained how the aggressive nature of the campaign forced her to stop bringing her baby son with her while canvassing. "I got shouted at about being a child killer," she recalled. This constant harassment created an environment where it was nearly impossible to campaign calmly.

 

The candidate also revealed the growing pressure on Muslim Labour members in Dewsbury to quit the party due to its stance on Gaza. Ms. Iqbal stated that children of these members were being bullied at school simply because their parents were associated with Labour, particularly after Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7.

 

A major point of contention during the campaign was Ms. Iqbal’s first name, which led to her Muslim identity being questioned. "Whether I was Muslim or not was constantly questioned, with constant criticism of my first name," she said, noting that this occurred even in community meetings held by her opponent, Mr. Mohamed.

 

The hostility didn't end with personal insults. Ms. Iqbal and her team were routinely followed by a van that would appear shortly after they began door-knocking, broadcasting accusations of being “genocide agents” and “child killers.” She stated that the campaign atmosphere was so toxic it made it difficult for her to engage with voters properly. “It felt like every day you had to look over your shoulder because the language was set from the top,” she said.

 

In contrast, Ms. Iqbal criticized Mr. Mohamed for failing to address or condemn the behavior of his supporters. "If the independent MP is confident in his views, he should not need to get his campaign to do stuff like that," she said, expressing frustration at his silence. She added that the fact she was the only woman running made it all the more important for Mr. Mohamed to step in and call for restraint.

 

The Labour candidate also spoke of her near-daily contact with the police in the lead-up to the election, following the troubling events of a previous local election. She recounted how groups of men had gathered outside polling stations, creating a hostile and intimidating environment. “The week leading up to the general election, I really did feel really intimidated,” Ms. Iqbal said.

 

Dewsbury, a town with a large Muslim population, has been a Labour stronghold for much of the last century. However, recent elections have exposed deep divisions within the electorate. In the 2024 general election, Mr. Mohamed, a pro-Gaza independent candidate, won with 15,641 votes, while Labour trailed significantly with 8,707 votes.

 

This election marks yet another sign of the growing influence of Middle Eastern politics in British local elections, as seen in the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, where George Galloway nearly won the seat by focusing on Muslim voters’ concerns about the Middle East. Heather Iqbal’s experience reveals the complexity of navigating such fraught political environments, where personal identity, party affiliation, and international issues collide in ways that can significantly impact campaigns and voter behavior.

 

Jackie Ramsay, Ms Iqbal’s election agent, said the canvassing team had been much depleted because Labour members had felt “bullied” into leaving. “As people are going to the mosque, people in the community are saying to them: ‘Why are you still in that genocidal party?’” she recalled. Ms Ramsay said she reported independent supporters to the police on three occasions. On one occasion, while a small group was canvassing in a Muslim area of Batley, an independent supporter ran up and “very aggressively shouted at us that we weren’t welcome in that area”. “He collected leaflets from some of the doors that we had delivered to. He said it was an independent area; if we didn’t get out he would be calling people so that they would remove us.

 

“Labour Party members started to leave. There was intimidation going on. People were expected if they were from the Muslim faith to leave the ‘genocidal party’ or the ‘party that supports the killing of babies’.” “I witnessed it at Thornhill Lees and Savile Town where people were being told what box to vote for. You had to run a bit of a gauntlet [to get in].”
Ms Iqbal said: “I think that there is a group of people who are exploiting the emotions that Gaza brings.

“Not only do they intimidate people into feeling like they couldn’t vote Labour because of their religion. That emotion overwhelms how you might feel about your local services or public policy generally.

 

As the dust settles on the 2024 election, Ms. Iqbal notes that there are many Labour members who feel "silenced" due to the growing pressures in constituencies like Dewsbury.

 

Based on a report from: Daily Telegraph 2024-09-24