The Batley and Spen by-election race landed in an anti-community soup while campaigners distributed leaflets to show Muslim voters that they hated Boris Johnson. To accentuate the hatred and gain momentum in the campaign, the Labour Party campaigners misused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s photograph from the G7 Summit 2019, indirectly hinting that the Conservative Party sides with a Hindu leader and that may imply that they are islamophobic. The message read: “Don’t risk a Tory MP who is not on your side”.
The Labour MP Navendu Mishra told The Guardian that the “divisive” leaflet sought to turn communities against each other.
A report in The Guardian suggested that separately, Labour alerted the police to fake leaflets that said the party believed “the biggest threat to our precious multicultural society is whiteness”. The TUC is reportedly taking legal advice over the leaflets, which also show Sir Keir Starmer taking the knee, and say the Labour leader “believes that it is high time that white people acknowledge their privilege”.
Amid massive backlash from the Indian community over this dirty trick by the Labour Party, Labour Friends of India released a statement on the leaflet in Batley & Spen by-election. The statement read: “The Labour Party is right to call out Boris Johnson’s lack of action following the conclusion that anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem in the Conservative Party. It is unfortunate that the Labour Party used the picture of the Prime Minister of India, the world’s largest democracy and one of the UK’s closest friends, from the G7 meeting in 2019, on its leaflet. We ask the Labour Party to withdraw the leaflet immediately and will also be writing to the leadership about this. The Labour Party has a proud history with India and is grateful for the support of Indian voters across the country, as well as our many Indian origin elected politicians at every level. Labour Friends of India will continue to celebrate the contributions of the Indian origin communities make to the UK and the importance of the UK-India relationship.”
