Amina Ali’s selection was mired in controversy amid allegations of so-called biraderi interference from factions within the Pakistani community

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

The Labour candidate chosen to fight George Galloway in the general election in Bradford has resigned after just three days.

Amina Ali, a councillor in Tower Hamlets, east London, was selected at a meeting of the Bradford West Labour party on Saturday night.

But within 72 hours of her selection, Ali tweeted: “I would like to stop the rumour mill, I have stepped down.” The tweet was subsequently deleted.

She later released a statement blaming childcare issues for her decision, saying she did not want to move to Bradford and disrupt her children’s education – an explanation greeted with incredulity among Labour members in the West Yorkshire city, who believe she was inadvertently caught up in the Pakistani clan politics which have plagued the local party for years.

Although Ali is of Somali background and has no profile in Bradford, her selection was mired in controversy amid allegations of so-called biraderi interference – a system of Asian family and tribal patronage harking back to clans in the Kashmiri villages where most of Bradford’s Pakistanis have their roots.

Earlier in the week, she retweeted another Twitter account which claimed the Bradford West biraderi were involved in her selection. She later deleted the retweet.

After being selected as Labour’s candidate in Bradford West, Amina Ali retweeted a tweet claiming Bradford’s so-called biraderi were involved in her selection. She deleted the retweet after the Guardian took this screenshot Photograph: Helen Pidd

On Twitter on Wednesday, Galloway described the situation as a “supernova shambles”. He said no one would be “taken in” by her child care excuse. The “real reason” for her withdrawal was the the “war inside Bradford West Labour party”, he said.

George Galloway (@georgegalloway) #Bradford New Labour. A supernova shambles...

The Labour party national executive committee would now decide how to choose her replacement, a party spokesman said.

Ali, a lone parent, said she had changed her mind because removing her two children from school would “cause massive disruption at a critical time” in their education. One was doing her GCSEs, she added, saying: “I would not be able to do justice to the members of Bradford West CLP and the people of Bradford.”



She added: “Bradford West needs a candidate who is going to live in Bradford and be involved in the campaign for every moment of every day and I am unable to fulfil this commitment despite a strong wish to support the Labour party to victory. The decision taken now will enable a new candidate to be selected for Bradford West to win the seat back for Labour.

“I remain very proud that I was the first British Somali woman ever selected to contest a target seat and I will continue to work within the Labour party in the future and during the campaign. I am sure everyone will understand I need to put my children first.”

Labour choose British-Somali Londoner to stand against George Galloway Read more

The only outside candidate to make it to the final vote, Ali easily beat the two locals on the all-women-shortlist - councillor Naveeda Ikram, who was the first Muslim woman lord mayor in Bradford, and campaigner Naz Shah. Of the 238 votes cast, Ikram got less than 75 and Shah just 13, according to one member present.

In 2012, when Galloway won Bradford West with a majority of more than 10,000 on a huge 36.6% swing, he claimed he had smashed the biraderi system in which members of Kashmiri clans controlled the votes in different parts of the city.

But many well-placed local observers insist biraderi continues to maintain a stranglehold over the city’s Labour politics. Recently, claims were made on social media alleging that some of the most powerful figures in Bradford West party met at Pasha, a shisha bar in Bradford, a week before the selection to discuss a voting strategy.

It was claimed the clan elders were unhappy that their favoured candidate, Bradford Labour councillor Shakeela Lal, had not made the shortlist. The allegation is that they then agreed to back Ali rather than give their votes to Shah or Ikram.

Ali is not thought to have known or wanted this patronage. Sean Dolat, a member of the Bradford West Labour party, said on Twitter that Ali received the only “spontaneous applause” during Saturday’s hustings with her answer to the question: “How are you going to tackle the issue of biraderi in Bradford?” She said: “Poverty has no clans.”

Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation and a presenter on the Muslim Ummah TV channel, described Ali’s selection as a huge blunder and said clan voting was alive and well in Bradford.

Mohammed Shafiq (@mshafiquk) Baradism alive and well in bradford west Labour Party.

Mohammed Shafiq (@mshafiquk) In a huge blunder bradford west Labour Party select Amina Ali of tower hamlets to face @georgegalloway over local candidates

Ratna Lachman, director of Just West Yorkshire, an anti-racism campaign group based in Bradford, said Labour central command knew biraderi was still a problem but has “done nowt”.



Ratna Lachman (@RatnaLachman) @Cllrshabbir @GlenysThornton @adrianlongthorn @_4m4r @AminaAliLabour Lab central knows bout Biraderi & done nowt decent folk need 2 stand up

In a piece for the Bradford-based Asian Sun on Sunday newspaper before Christmas, Lachman claimed that a Labour member of Pakistani heritage told her that political candidates in Bradford were “anointed on the basis of ‘bartering’ that takes place between community leaders of the district’s Jhat, Bain and Choudhury clans and the biraderi bloc vote then falls behind the “chosen” candidate.”

She quoted Parveen Akhtar, a lecturer at the University of Bradford, who wrote in her book British Muslim Politics:

Local politicians realise that if they have the support of biraderi leaders they can secure Pakistani community votes en masse … local politicians act as patrons of biraderi leaders, conferring status on them … in turn, such leaders mobilise electoral support for their patrons.”

The Bradford West CLP chair is Imran Hussain, who lost to Galloway so spectacularly in 2012. Many of his family are members of the local party. He wanted to contest the seat again but was thwarted when Labour imposed an all-women-shortlist. He has instead been selected to contest Bradford East, which is held by Liberal Democrat David Ward on a 365 majority.

On 7 February, Galloway tweeted a picture of himself embracing Imran’s father, Altaf Hussain.