Police 'failed to act' on election harassment against Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood - claim

West Midlands Police has been accused of failing to act with sufficient urgency to protect Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood, her family and supporters during a fraught General Election campaign.

During one canvassing session in the constituency the MP, who is now justice secretary, had to be hurried into a car by an armed protection officer to flee from intimidation while on a second occasion there were reports masked men with fireworks were attempting to enter a venue she was inside.

On three occasions, police were called to incidents in the streets of Ladywood but 'failed to intervene' to the satisfaction of Mahmood's team. A log kept by the Birmingham MP's campaigners during the run-up to the election and on the night of the count, seen by BirminghamLive, recounts multiple claims of harassment.

READ MORE: MP Shabana Mahmood had armed police guard as election intimidation became 'assault on democracy'

The document formed part of evidence presented to the Electoral Commission in a probe into the General Election. The elections watchdog is now calling for 'urgent and co-ordinated action' to combat threats and harassment during elections, drawing on the Birmingham incidents as examples.

Just over half of candidates, 55 per cent, said they were abused or intimidated during the election campaign, with women and ethnic minorities particularly targeted, says the report out today, Wednesday, November 13.

The alleged incidents happened during a tense election campaign earlier this year which pitted Labour incumbents in the city - including Mahmood and her sitting Labour MP counterparts Jess Phillips, Khalid Mahmood, Tahir Ali, Preet Kaur Gill and Liam Byrne - against Independents and Workers' Party candidates standing on a pro-Palestine ticket. Their opponents captured a widespread anger, particularly in global majority communities, in the city, over Labour's stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Posters featuring the faces of Gazan children caught up in the conflict were circulated in neighbourhoods and featured on vans touring key areas, with Labour MPs and councillors accused of 'staying silent'. On several occasions, angry exchanges resulted at hustings and during public appearances, with Labour candidates or supporters told they had 'blood on their hands'.

Among the claims, campaigners say that on Tuesday, June 25, Mahmood father, Mahmood Ahmed, was one of a group of canvassers who called the police after being verbally abused by a supporter of Akhmed Yakoob, an independent candidate who also stood in Ladywood. “When police officers arrived some time later, rather than addressing the individual who had been harassing the activists, they attempted to disperse everyone from the street,” the document compiled by the constituency party claims.

Two days later, Mahmood was forced to abandon plans to canvass a street after a young man allegedly confronted the MP and her allies, shouting abuse at her before demanding the men “shave their beards” – the implication being they were not proper Muslims because they were Labour supporters. “A close protection officer escorted Shabana into a car and she was driven away,” the document said.

Labour canvassers were also allegedly followed by supporters of Yakoob who were driving in a truck with a digital screen bearing Yakoob’s image. Through a microphone, a Yakoob supporter shouted “blood on your hands”, “genocide-enablers” and “Allah will judge you”, the document alleged. After a complaint was lodged “the police responded by stating that he was exercising his right to free speech”.

In another incident, this time on June 30, Labour canvassers claimed they were abused by two men, one of whom “approached an activist aggressively with a large dog'. The canvassers called the police, but abandoned the door-to-door session. “One [police] officer informed the canvassing group that Alum Rock was a ‘high crime area’ and suggested we should be aware of the risks involved,” the document said.

While canvassing in Newtown ward, supporters of Yakoob began filming Labour activists while using “abusive language”, the document claims. They also claim a black woman canvasser was told to leave a mainly Asian area because the residents were “not her people”.

The document, headlined Incident Log - Birmingham Ladywood, highlights confrontations in the weeks leading up to July 4 election. On the night of the election result, there was a heavy police presence at the counting venue in Birmingham's ICC.

A chorus of chants and boos had greeted Labour's Jess Phillips when she took to the stage to hear she had narrowly defeated her rival Jody McIntyre, a disabled pro-Palestine activist, to keep the seat of Yardley. Yet soon after, Labour activists said they were 'shocked' to see officers leave ahead of Mahmood's result, despite the history of incidents.

“The returning officer called emergency services to request a police presence due to safety concerns for the candidate (Mahmood)… it was unprecedented for emergency services to be called to facilitate a declaration,” the document said.

During her acceptance speech and afterwards, the diminutive MP said the campaign waged by Mr Yakoob had 'sullied politics'. She said she had faced threats against her, her family, and her supporters and was labelled an infidel and baby killer as anger over Labour's position on Gaza played out through the campaign.

Speaking from the stage she said the taunts, abusive slogans and harassment of activists had fuelled her through a campaign she said was intended to stir up Muslim voters. Mahmood received 15,558 votes in the end, while Yakoob polled 12,137 votes.

Mahmood said: "This was a campaign sullied by harassment and intimidation, of me, my family and all the people who went out and knocked on doors and handed out leaflets and tried to get their voices heard. Bravely, they continued...because this wasn't just an assault on us, this was an assault on democracy itself.

"Amid all this, let us not forget, today is a day of triumph. They thought they could intimidate us, but they couldn't. They thought they could silence us, but they couldn't. They thought they could beat us, but they didn't."

Yakoob, a criminal defence lawyer with a large social media following, is still under investigation from the Solicitors Regulation Authority after he used social media to promote a false claim against a young teacher who was accused of using a racial slur while canvassing for a Labour councillor. The probe was triggered by a BirminghamLive investigation that revealed Yakoob had promoted a falsely-captioned video to his thousands of followers on social media, then later advertised the teacher's name and school.

In a statement, West Midlands Police said: "We are aware of a number of allegations which have been made by campaigners in the Birmingham Ladywood area relating to this year’s General Election campaign. A number of the matters were dealt with during the campaign, with people being spoken to at the time and crimes recorded and investigated where appropriate.

"Other matters are the subject of an ongoing review involving other agencies and enquiries continue. Throughout the campaign, our priority was to ensure public safety and the integrity of the democratic process.

"We were in touch with candidates throughout the run-up to the election to offer them advice and listen to any concerns they had. We have longstanding plans in place for protective physical security for elected officials, which are reviewed where appropriate in conjunction with other agencies."

A spokesperson for the Electoral Commission said there was “unacceptable abuse and intimidation of some candidates”, including incidents in Birmingham. In its report, the commission calls for police to treat allegations and cases of election-related intimidation seriously.

Vijay Rangarajan, the watchdog’s chief executive, said: “The level of harassment and intimidation faced by candidates is particularly concerning, and requires urgent and coordinated action.”

We have reached out to Akhmed Yakoob for comment.