Two UK Green Party candidates for next week’s elections have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion of “suspicion of stirring up racial hatred” in relation of alleged antisemitic social media posts.
Two women in their 50s, Saiqa Ali and Sabine Mairey, both candidates for the Green Party standing for election in inner-London Lambeth next week have been arrested under section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986 over social media posts that may have allegedly promoted hatred. Thursday’s arrests came after British charity the Campaign Against Antisemitism highlighted the social media activity of several Green Party candidates and said they would be referring the material to the police.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrests and said in a statement: “Police have arrested two women, aged 57 and 54, on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred online, an offence under section 19 of the Public Order Act 1986. They remain in police custody. The arrests follow an investigation launched after concerns were reported to police on Tuesday 21 April about antisemitic material that had been posted online.”
The BBC reports one of the candidates has now been suspended by the Green Party, and that a party spokesman called the alleged posts “abhorrent” overnight.
Britain’s left-wing newspaper of record The Guardian notes mentions of Saiqa Ali have now been scrubbed from the website of the Green Party, but she had already made an apology over her social media activity after her posts were uncovered by a media investigation last month. She had previously been described as a “community leader and Southern Women’s Aid Network founder”.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism particularly highlighted an image allegedly posted to Instagram by Ms Ali showing a Hamas fighter holding a belt-fed machine gun, wearing a balaclava and green Al-Qassam Brigades, and headband overlaid with “resistance is freedom” text. The post caption read, in addition, “long live the resistance”. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist group in the United Kingdom.
Other posts allegedly linked to Ali’s accounts highlighted by the group include claims that U.S. President Donald Trump is “owned by Jews”, that the October 7th terrorist attack was an act of resistance, and that the September 11th attack was an Israeli “false-flag”.
Ali is a recipient of the British Empire Medal (BEM) for “services to the community in South London particularly during Covid-19”. The government describes the BEM as:
Achievement or contribution of a very “hands-on” service to the community in a local geographical area. This might take the form of sustained commitment in support of very local charitable and/or voluntary activity; or innovative work that has delivered real impact but that is relatively short (three to four years) in duration.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism said that in addition to contacting the police, they had also contacted the Honours Committee to suggest the medal be revoked.
Green Candidate Sabine Mairey was accused of having posted a Facebook post declaring “ramming a Synagogue isn’t antisemitism. It’s revenge” and in another alleged communication, a public message comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and calling it “depraved”.
Next week on May 7th, London borough councils, several English local authorities, the Scottish Parliament, and Welsh Parliament will all be up for election, with thousands of seats to be contested. The national attention on such elections varies and can sometimes wane to a considerable degree, but disapproval of central government has reached such a level that the vote is inevitably being seen as a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and a signpost on the future direction of the country.