Jonathan Ashworth hid from ‘screaming’ Palestine protesters in vicarage

Former MP, who lost his seat to pro-Palestine independent, says he has never known a campaign of ‘such vitriol, bullying and intimidation’

From The Telegraph

Mr Ashworth was central to Labour’s winning campaign but lost his Leicester South seat to Shockat Adam, an independent candidate who ran on a pro-Gaza ticket.

In his first interview since the ballot, Mr Ashworth told LBC: “I’ve been immensely proud to represent a diverse constituency in Leicester where I’ve been immensely proud for 13 years to have been able to walk into any mosque, any Hindu temple, any gurdwara.

“But I have never known a campaign of such vitriol, such bullying, such intimidation built on the foul and obnoxious lie that I was responsible for genocide. That I had the blood of Gazan children on my hands.

“This is the campaign that was run by a minority of bullies, and loud mouths. This is not representative of the many, many Muslim constituents I was proud to represent. This is not Muslim values.

That’s what he still feels the need to say. 

Mr Ashworth noted a call from The Muslim Vote, a campaign group which created a list of approved candidates for Muslims to vote for, to “punish” MPs who did not back a ceasefire.

Asked what had happened to him during the campaign, he replied: “I was chased down the street, shouted at and screamed at for 40, 45 minutes, so I had to seek refuge literally in a vicarage. And they waited for me outside the vicarage.

“And even when I came out [of] the vicarage, they were shouting at me with megaphones. There were leaflets going around, accusing me of being ‘Genocide Jon’, anonymous leaflets.”

He added: “The vitriol is like something I have never seen, even though I’ve called for a ceasefire, even though I’ve called for Palestinian statehood,” he added.

All that and still they didn’t love him. So sad