TOI Correspondent from London: Green Party of England and Wales is accused of encouraging sectarian voting and dividing Indian and Pakistani communities in the UK after it released campaign videos for a by-election on Thursday in Urdu and Bangla and promised the next ones in Arabic and Pashto.
The Gorton and Denton byelection is a tight three-way race between Reform UK, the Greens and Labour. The seat was previously held by Labour but the MP, Andrew Gwynne, was suspended from the party and has now stepped down due to illness.
Green Party’s Urdu video, designed to appeal to Pakistani-origin voters, features UK PM Keir Starmer shaking hands with PM Narendra Modi and UK deputy PM David Lammy meeting Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu to a backdrop of stock pictures of Gaza ruins and the word “Labour”. Green candidate Hannah Spencer, who is blonde, appears in the video speaking a few basic words of Urdu and the rest is by a native speaker. The visuals link Reform UK candidate Matt Goodwin to US President Donald Trump and Steve Bannon as well as footage of ICE agents in the USA. It ends with a picture of Spencer wearing a keffiyeh and the words “Ramadan Mubarak”.
Goodwin described the video as “blatant sectarianism” and criticised it for not being in English.
Green Party sources told TOI: “We produced these videos to reach out to communities who speak these languages.”
The Urdu leaflet shows Spencer in front of a mosque and says: “Labour must be punished for Gaza”.
Just under 40% of Gorton’s population is Muslim.
Hindus for Labour has denounced the video, saying, “It is entirely unclear what the Prime Minister of India has to do with a local byelection in Greater Manchester. Political parties have a responsibility to unite communities, not to divide them for electoral advantage. Local elections should focus squarely on local priorities.” It also accused the Greens of “drawing communities along religious lines”, distracting voters from real issues and threatening Gorton and Denton’s social cohesion.
Neeraj Patil, chair of Hindus for Labour, told TOI: “What has Narendra Modi got to do with the Gaza conflict and this byelection? In the UK Indians and Pakistani communities are like good neighbours and colleagues. The Greens are trying to divide Hindus and Muslims and spread hatred between communities.”
