From The Telegraph
Green Party activists are telling Muslim voters to “punish Labour for Gaza” before next week’s Gorton and Denton by-election.
Campaign leaflets – written in both English and Urdu – feature a picture of Hannah Spencer, the Green candidate, wearing a red and black keffiyeh draped over her shoulders while she poses in front of a mosque.
In Urdu, the pamphlet states: “Push the falling walls one more time. Labour must be punished for Gaza. Reform must be defeated and Green must be voted for. Vote for the Green Party for a strong voice for Muslims.”
In English it adds: “Stop Islamophobia. Stop Reform.”
Gorton and Denton has more than 76,000 potential voters spread across Denton on Tameside and Gorton, Levenshulme and Burnage in Manchester.
More than a quarter of potential voters in the constituency are of Muslim heritage and 19.2 per cent are believed to have Pakistani roots.
Leaked text messages from the Gorton and Denton Green campaign show party activists planning to target Muslims “outside mosques” during Ramadan, which began this week.
The messages read: “This is also the final Friday of the campaign, which means it’s the final Jummah (Friday prayers). It’s also Ramadan, which makes our efforts today to leaflet outside mosques and reach out to the Muslim community even more important.”
The Green Party has also issued additional Urdu-language leaflets focusing on domestic policy.
Fesl Reza-Khan, co-founder of Muslim Greens, urged “Urdu and Punjabi” speakers to help spread the Green Party message to the community. Speaking on video, he said: “The Gorton and Denton by-election is now heating up. We’re short of Urdu and Punjabi-speaking volunteers. Let’s get our message out to the community to stop Reform.”
In response, Matt Goodwin, the Reform candidate, has accused the Green Party of causing “division” and “organising along communal lines”. He said: “The Greens are more interested in Gaza than the people of Gorton and Denton, whilst the Labour Party are offering food in exchange for political support.”
