{"id":458831,"date":"2026-03-05T11:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/458831\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T11:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:52:08","slug":"greens-deputy-leader-calls-for-apology-from-starmer-over-false-claims-that-led-to-death-threats-green-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/458831\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens deputy leader calls for apology from Starmer over false claims that led to death threats | Green party"},"content":{"rendered":"

The deputy leader of the Green party has demanded an apology from Keir Starmer<\/a> after the prime minister appeared to back false claims he protested in support of the Iranian regime, which led to him receiving death threats.<\/p>\n

Mothin Ali said he was \u201cso scared\u201d that the racist threats had increased to a point where \u201cit feels like this time it might get me killed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Multiple threatening messages sent to Mothin Ali and seen by the Guardian included \u201cwe know where to find you\u201d, \u201cyou have no idea what\u2019s coming\u201d and one that told him to \u201cpack your bags before it\u2019s too late\u201d.<\/p>\n

The messages were sent after Ali, a Green party<\/a> local councillor, attended an anti-war demonstration in Parliament Square on Saturday that was mischaracterised by organisations such as GB News as a rally in support of the Iranian regime.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could cost me my life, this kind of story,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m an anti-war activist, I got involved in politics because of anti-war stuff. I was there to call out the illegal attacks [of the US and Israel on Iran] and to raise my voice against Britain getting involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer said in the Commons on Monday: \u201cI think we were all shocked by the actions of the deputy leader of the Green party \u2013 although perhaps not surprised, given that party\u2019s recent turn of direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comment came in response to a question by the Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke, who said he was \u201cappalled \u2013 not shocked, I am afraid to say \u2013 as I am sure the prime minister was, to see at the weekend the deputy leader of the Green party once again protesting in support of the ayatollah\u201d. He added: \u201cI am afraid that the Green party has become a magnet for all the people who the prime minister quite rightly kicked out of the Labour party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alec Shelbrooke, the Conservative MP for Elmet and Rothwell, seen here in 2018, made false claims against Ali in the Commons. Photograph: Mark Kerrison\/Alamy<\/p>\n

He also appeared, without giving evidence, to link Ali with antisemitism. The claims were protected under parliamentary privilege, which allows MPs to speak freely in the Commons without risk of legal action.<\/p>\n

Ali was later defended in parliament by the MP Ellie Chowns, who accused Shelbrooke of \u201cattacking the reputation\u201d of her Green party colleague. She said that he had \u201cattended a CND Stop the War anti-war protest in support of his principles of being anti-war and pro democracy and diplomacy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starmer and Shelbrooke have been contacted for a response.<\/p>\n

Prof Abbas Edalat, the founder of CASMII<\/a> (Campaign Against Sanctions, Military and Imperial Interventions), which organised the demo with support from Stop the War Coalition and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, said there were \u201cdifferent tendencies, different ideologies, different positions about the domestic situation in Iran\u201d on Saturday.<\/p>\n

However, the claims made in GB News that the event was a rally in support of the regime were false. \u201cIt was a rally against the US and Israeli attack, now supported by the UK government, against Iran,\u201d Edalat said. \u201cThat was the central slogan, against the illegal, unprovoked attack on Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Labour government, by allowing the US to use the military base of the UK in Cyprus, has sided with the US and Israel. It has entered the war of aggression, as it did under Tony Blair with the invasion of Iraq. That\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pictures and videos showed there were a small handful of placards featuring a picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with the words \u201cchoose the right side of history\u201d from the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a group historically supportive of the regime.<\/p>\n

However, the majority held anti-war placards. There were also placards criticising the US president, Donald Trump, alongside Iranian flags and banners representing groups such as the Women of Colour section of Global Women\u2019s Strike and Jewish Network for Palestine. Protesters could be heard chanting: \u201cLabour party, war party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali said he felt Starmer\u2019s comment was a desperate attempt to discredit the Green party after a major win over Labour last week, when Hannah Spencer became the party\u2019s fifth MP at the Gorton and Denton byelection<\/a> in Manchester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t just affect me, it affects my family, it affects everyone\u2019s campaigns I\u2019m supposed to be working on. I\u2019ve got too much work to do and I don\u2019t know how to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was recently abused and followed outside Earl\u2019s Court tube station in London by a member of the public who threatened to \u201csmash my head in\u201d, Ali said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got my phone up to try and record him, but I couldn\u2019t press the record button because my hand was shaking. So I just held it up like I was recording, and as soon as I did that, he walked away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ali has been a magnet for the far right since his election to Leeds city council in 2024, when he ended his speech with \u201cAllahu Akbar\u201d, meaning \u201cGod is great\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was falsely accused by far-right agitators online, including Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, of participating in unrest in his Harehills ward in 2024, when the opposite was true: <\/a>he stood in front of police to protect them and stopped local residents engaging in violence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The deputy leader of the Green party has demanded an apology from Keir Starmer after the prime minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-458831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}