‘Intimidation campaign' by supporters of pro-Gaza MP leaves town in terror

Telegraph

26-07-2025

Supporters of a pro-Gaza independent MP are terrorising people in a West Yorkshire town, the local Tory leader has claimed.
Qadeer Ghafoor, the chairman of the Dewsbury Tories in West Yorkshire, has claimed he and his family have been personally threatened after falling out with some of the supporters over a business dispute.
After reporting the claims to police, Mr Ghafoor, 34, was advised by officers to move out of his home for a night and install a panic alarm so he could call for immediate help if he was attacked.
Other colleagues and associates have also reported their cars being torched, receiving death threats, or suffering arson attacks on their property.
The violence follows a general election campaign last year in which Heather Iqbal, the losing Labour candidate, complained of 'intimidation, abuse and harassment' in the run-up to polling day on July 4.
Ms Iqbal said supporters of Iqbal Mohamed, the successful independent candidate, chased her down the street and shouted that she was a 'child murderer' and a 'genocide agent', while a loudspeaker van blared out the message that Labour was a Zionist party. Those to have expressed support for the MP online include a member of an organised crime group.
She said Muslim Labour members in Dewsbury were under huge pressure to quit the party because of its stance on Gaza, with their children bullied at school for having a parent in Labour.
The incidents provide a worrying insight into a brand of sectarian politics apparently on the rise in parts of the UK in the wake of Hamas's Oct 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
It comes after four independent pro-Gaza MPs were elected to the House of Commons for the first time in 2024, many of them in seats once regarded as safely Labour. At the time, their victories fuelled fears that divisive faith-based politics were coming to the UK.
'The way the [Dewsbury] campaign was done involved a lot of bullying and harassment and, ultimately, they were able to influence the outcome of the election by scaremongering people,' said Mr Ghafoor.
'There was a van following the Labour team around, shouting while they were door-knocking, saying they were a Zionist party and you will not be a Muslim anymore if you vote for the Labour Party.'
The Dewsbury and Batley constituency used to be a two-way fight between the Tories and Labour, but the fracturing of politics saw Mr Mohamed take 41 per cent of the vote over Labour's 23 per cent. Reform, on 16 per cent, squeezed the Tories into fourth with 11 per cent.
Mr Ghafoor said it had left a toxic political atmosphere that he believed was now spilling over into threats and violence unprecedented in modern British politics.
'They have now won an election which means, in their heads, that they think they have got their guy through the door in the corridors of power and they believe they are untouchable,' he said.
'Things have got worse and worse since the general election in the local community. There are people affected by arson, there are cars being burned, people being beaten up and their lives threatened.'
Mr Ghafoor, a father of two who runs his family property business, said he had become a target after standing up to them.
'It is upsetting for me because I feel like if they can do it to me – someone as well known in the community, who is well respected and [has] done well in business – they can do it to anybody.'
He claimed he was told by intermediaries in a financial dispute of the potential threats to him and his property from supporters of the MP. A suspect is understood to have been arrested and released by police under investigation.
Mr Mohamed denied the claims, saying he had run his election campaign in a 'clean, polite, humble and professional' way. He said he was aware of one complaint to police but the force closed it with no further action taken. He said he was not responsible for other people's 'unlawful and unacceptable' behaviour or actions.
Mr Ghafoor said: 'I can only deal with this by standing up for what is right. If they do it to someone else who doesn't have the resources and network I have, then he or she is going to do something terrible like commit suicide.
'These people are nasty but I am prepared to put up a fight against them because I believe it is the right thing to do. The police have reassured me that they have everything in place to make sure that I am safe.'
He said it had been an anxious time, interspersed with moments of 'panicking, worry and staying up at night watching out my window, not being able to sleep'.
'I was genuinely worried, I have never been that worried in my life,' he said.
'Like a third-world country'
Mr Ghafoor is not alone. Others in Dewsbury claim to have fallen foul of the violence.
Mohammed Akram, 33, said his sister, her husband and their baby had been subjected to such attacks at their home in Dewsbury while they were breaking their fast for Ramadan at 4.15am in March this year.
'Her husband goes to take out the rubbish to the bins and sees the garden fence is on fire. At that time it wasn't that big but had he not seen it, the whole fence leads to the house and it could have been set on fire,' he said.
Police, who arrived to investigate the arson attack, offered to move them out but they decided to remain in the house with a panic button to alert police to any further threats. Officers are understood to have made three subsequent arrests including a supporter of Mr Mohamed.
It was the second arson attack on the family, after a prized 'antique' Mitsubishi L200 4x4, belonging to Mohammad Akram, the father, was set alight in January. Again, it was early in the morning and they were only alerted to it when a milkman saw the vehicle on fire during his morning round.
After voicing their suspicions as to who may have been behind the attacks to the police, Mr Akram claimed he received a phone call threatening violence.
Former textile worker Shyvana Tayub, 81, saw his car being set alight during the night by a suspected arsonist from his bedroom window last October.
'There was a big flash, a big bang. I was amazed how the person who did it did not burn his eyes and face. He came out from underneath the car and started running,' he said. 'If something had happened to my house, we would have been burnt.
'I came here as a child from Pakistan. I have been here 65 years. I was 100 per cent certain that I would be safer here than anywhere else. Now I have no faith that I will be. It is like a third-world country.'
Mr Akram said he could have been targeted by a crime gang who wrongly blamed him for letting police search a lock-up that he was managing. It contained 30 kilograms of class A drugs and cash, which police seized, resulting in the prosecution of the gang members.
According to Mr Ghafoor, a successful barrister who owned the unit has also had his £250,000 Lamborghini set on fire and wrecked at his Dewsbury home.
One of the members of the organised crime group was Rizwan Arif, who was also a supporter of Mr Mohamed.
Arif was jailed for nine-and-a-half years in June this year for his role as the 'money man' or 'accountant' for the organised crime group which supplied heroin and cocaine around the UK.
The Telegraph has obtained a social media post by Mr Arif from July 4 last year in which he urges voters to support Mr Mohamed, showing a photoshopped image of the ballot paper with a purple arrow pointing to a cross against the independent MP.
FIGHT IS OURS VICTORY IS ALLAH'S.'
Mr Ghafoor said: 'The amount of people, homes, cars, businesses that have been attacked, we need to call it out for what it is. Terrorism is the use or threat of violence, often against civilians, to instil fear and achieve political, religious, or ideological aims.'
Mr Mohamed said he was proud of his election campaign. 'It was a clean grassroots campaign that focused on the issues faced by my constituents in Dewsbury and Batley, our country, and the Conservative and Labour Party support for the genocide in Palestine,' he said in a statement to The Telegraph.
'Unlike previous election campaigns and dirty tricks by mainstream parties, my approach was to be humble, polite and professional at all times and to spend all our time, energy and resources listening to and connecting with residents.
'I did not speak about or post about any of the other candidates during my campaign and I did not encourage, employ or condone any aggressive, intimidatory, abusive or disrespectful behaviour.'
Mr Mohamed added he was made aware of the one complaint that was reported to police and closed with no action taken after an investigation.
He added: 'I am not aware of any of the other allegations or cases you refer to therefore cannot comment beyond the fact that I am not responsible for other people's unlawful or unacceptable behaviour or actions. All such actions should be dealt with under the law.'