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| Zarah Sultana with her idol |
Zarah Sultana is the new darling of the left. When she addresses Parliament her speeches are shared online by the likes of Diane Abbott, Ian Lavery and Momentum. This included her famed maiden speech in which she rubbished the last Labour government as 'Thatcherite'. While there is no doubt she is putting herself around a bit, her constituents in Coventry South must be wondering exactly how this is benefiting them. In one of her most recent speeches she called on the government to help migrants bypass the Greek border and provide them with alternative routes into Europe including, of course, Britain itself. Watch below.
While several European countries are currently assisting Greece in defending its borders here we have an MP calling for Britain to intervene on the opposite side and help the invaders. Thankfully the open borders policy of the left was decisively rejected on December the 12th and we don't have the likes of Sultana driving government policy. However, they are still making an impact, albeit not necessarily for their constituents.
On Tuesday it was revealed that meat from ritually slaughtered animals would be served up in Parliament. The kosher and halal slaughter methods are highly controversial as they require that animals are not stunned prior to the fatal cut. The practice is outlawed in many European countries, but legal in France, Britain and Germany. Animal welfare charities often turn a blind eye to this cruelty for fear of upsetting the Muslim community, but the RSPCA maintains a vocal opposition to it. The meat that will be now served up in Westminster followed a complaint by, yes you guessed it - Zarah Sultana.
Sultana, a Muslim, wrote the complaint alongside another new Labour MP - Charlotte Nichols (Warrington North). Nichols is a Jewish convert, so both MPs will take advantage of the new menu. They celebrated the news in numerous tweets with Sultana remarking that her "enforced veganism can come to an end". The overwhelming majority of MPs in Parliament are neither Muslim or Jewish and it is not known if and how the products will be labelled, so therefore all members and all staff could potentially be consuming it. This small victory will also give scant consolation to voters in Coventry South and Warrington North who just narrowly elected these two members.
Of course anyone who criticises the rather unsavoury aspects of Sultana's posturing can expect to be labelled a racist. Such a response is par for the course. This is how Sultana responded when she noticed that a Tory MP had commented on a tweet critical of her.
I get enough racist abuse & threats without Tory MPs encouraging it, but here's @lucyallan MP replying to a far-right account, who's calling refugees "Muslim males of fighting age" & implying Labour only represents Muslims.— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) March 12, 2020
Why did you insult me, rather than call that out, Lucy? pic.twitter.com/XbDrYhg353
The leap to 'far right' was undoubtedly made without hesitation. However, Sultana herself is not exactly squeaky clean when it comes to racism. Her selection for Coventry South was steeped in controversy. She was selected from a shortlist of just two candidates - the other being a Lambeth councillor. Local members were understandably miffed at having outsiders being foisted on them by London head office while Coventry councillors were left off the list. Shortly after she won selection a number of controversies began to emerge in the press.
The big headline-grabber was a tweet in which she said she would celebrate the deaths of Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Benjamin Netanyahu. There was much more besides, including anti-white and anti-Jewish rhetoric. While studying at Birmingham University in 2015 she used Twitter to racially abuse a Jewish student referring to her as 'YT' (whitey). The student in question was vying for the post of Ethnic Minorities Officer and when she didn't get it Sultana posted: "Yay, the white woman didn't win". There were also multiple posts mocking Jews, including a lovely message to someone suggesting they should "jump off a cliff".
Eventually Sultana was forced into publishing an apology, but she lied about the circumstances, stating that the posts were made when she was a teenager. In 2015 Sultana was 20 years of age, turning 21 in October that year.
Prior to her selection as a Parliamentary candidate, Sultana worked for the controversial Islamist group Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND). MEND has been accused of anti-Semitism, homophobia and legitimising attacks on British troops. MEND has also been endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn and other Labour figures including Diane Abbott and Naz Shah. The same group founded 'Islamophobia Awareness Month', the logo for which incorporated a Daesh-style salute. Just to remind you, if you're thinking any of this is particularly distasteful - you're a far right bigot!
Not surprisingly, Sultana is backing Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon for the leadership and has spoken at several events in support of them. She has also expressed support for the hard left Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and said in an interview recently that she would be up for a US trip to go and campaign for him (see below).
Note how her videos always end with the slogan 'Standing up for Coventry South'. Quite how a transatlantic trip to intervene in a foreign election is 'standing up' for her constituents is anyone's guess.
The big headline-grabber was a tweet in which she said she would celebrate the deaths of Tony Blair, George W. Bush and Benjamin Netanyahu. There was much more besides, including anti-white and anti-Jewish rhetoric. While studying at Birmingham University in 2015 she used Twitter to racially abuse a Jewish student referring to her as 'YT' (whitey). The student in question was vying for the post of Ethnic Minorities Officer and when she didn't get it Sultana posted: "Yay, the white woman didn't win". There were also multiple posts mocking Jews, including a lovely message to someone suggesting they should "jump off a cliff".
Prior to her selection as a Parliamentary candidate, Sultana worked for the controversial Islamist group Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND). MEND has been accused of anti-Semitism, homophobia and legitimising attacks on British troops. MEND has also been endorsed by Jeremy Corbyn and other Labour figures including Diane Abbott and Naz Shah. The same group founded 'Islamophobia Awareness Month', the logo for which incorporated a Daesh-style salute. Just to remind you, if you're thinking any of this is particularly distasteful - you're a far right bigot!
Not surprisingly, Sultana is backing Rebecca Long-Bailey and Richard Burgon for the leadership and has spoken at several events in support of them. She has also expressed support for the hard left Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders and said in an interview recently that she would be up for a US trip to go and campaign for him (see below).
With a wafer thin majority in Coventry South, Zarah Sultana could well follow in the footsteps of the last darling of the left. Laura Pidcock was elected in 2017 and hailed as 'a future leader of the party'. Like Sultana, Pidcock embraced a string of foreign causes that were alien to many of her constituents. She was gone at the next election.
Coventry South 2019 general election
Zarah Sultana (Lab) 19,544 (43.4%) -11.7%
Mattie Heaven (Con) 19,143 (42.5%) +4.4%
Stephen Richmond (Lib Dem) 3,398 (7.5%) +4.7%
James Crocker (Brexit) 1,432 (3.2%) New
Becky Finlayson (Green) 1,092 (2.4) +1.1%
Ed Manning (Ind) 435 (1.0%) New
