Mothin Ali hits back over Starmer's racist comments

Green party deputy leader Mothin Ali has said the lies of Keir Starmer and Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke could get him killed. He has already received death threats as a result of the smears, made by the two MPs under ‘parliamentary privilege’ that protects them from legal action.

Shelbrooke claimed on Monday 2 March that Ali had been “protesting in support of the ayatollah”. This was a reference to Iranian cleric Ali Khamenei, deliberately murdered along with his family by Israeli bombs. Ali had done no such thing. Instead he had participated in an anti-war protest against the ongoing illegal US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Shelbrooke claimed to be:

appalled – not shocked, I am afraid to say – as I am sure the PM was, to see at the weekend the deputy leader of the Green Party once again protesting in support of the ayatollah.

The hatred and fear that runs through Leeds now, which has been whipped up at times by Councillor Mothin, is a disgrace.

Rather than correct this disgraceful lie, Starmer chose to try to excuse Labour’s disastrous by-election defeat last week by giving the claim his racist endorsement:

I think we were all shocked by the actions of the deputy leader of the Green Party – although perhaps not surprised, given that party’s recent turn of direction.

Mothin Ali isn’t taking this lying down

Ali pointed out the spinelessness of using privilege to smear him, telling Middle East Eye that:

He can say what he wants in there and get away with it. I want to see how brave he is. Will he repeat this outside parliament?

The PM is just another coward and allied with the Tories. He’s let down the British public and he needs to resign. The Green Party has been accused of sectarianism. This is why that’s wrong.

They will get me killed…over the last couple of days I’ve received about 20 death threats.

Ali went on to say that he is not a supporter of Iran’s government but was outraged by the US-Israel murder of more than 160 schoolgirls by bombing their school:

A whole load of little girls had just been blown to bits. I’m not supposed to feel anything about that?

When black and brown kids get blown up no one cares. If I left politics and went for a job interview, this is the first thing people would see online.

Party leader Zack Polanski said Starmer showed “blatant Islamophobia” and had smeared “a caring man of principle standing up for peace”. He added that the comments show the establishment’s fear of peace activists, especially Muslims:

There’s nothing the establishment is more scared of than a calm, kind, thoughtful gardener who happens to be a Muslim man in politics.

How low can they go?

Like Starmer, Shelbrooke is an ardent supporter of Israeli murder and apartheid. In June 2025, as Israel illegally attacked Iran and murdered civilians before getting its arse handed to it in the so-called ’12-day war’, Shelbrooke told MPs that:

I want to put it on the record that Israel has my absolute full support in the action that it is taking.

Starmer, of course, does not have the spine to stand outside number 10 and repeat his smears, as he knows the response his heinous remarks will get. Not even an anonymous ‘Number 10 spokesperson’ would answer requests to clarify or correct Starmer’s lie.

Based on this episode and much more, he and Shelbrooke are racist, genocide-enabling scum pandering to the worst instincts of the foul, pea-brain right. And that’s not under parliamentary privilege.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Hugo Harvey