Naz Shah

Naseem Shah (born 13 November 1973 ) is a British Labour Party politician. She was elected at the 2015 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford West, and gained the seat from George Galloway of the Respect Party.

In April 2016, Shah was suspended from the Labour Party following the emergence of a Facebook post she had shared from Norman Finkelstein suggesting the relocation of Israel to the US. She was reinstated in July 2016.

Early life and career
Born in Bradford, Shah was abandoned by her father when six years old after he ran off with their neighbour's sixteen-year-old daughter. At age 12, she was sent to Pakistan by her mother, Zoora Shah.

Zoora Shah fatally poisoned a man she was having an affair with. She served 14 years in prison for four charges including murder, attempted murder, solicitation to murder and forgery. While in Pakistan, Naz Shah had an arranged marriage.

Before being elected as an MP, Shah was the chair of mental health charity, Sharing Voices Bradford, and had previously worked as a carer for disabled people, as an NHS Commissioner and a director for a regional association supporting local councils. She has said that she voted for George Galloway at the Bradford West by-election in 2012.

Selection controversy
Naz Shah was selected to stand for the Labour Party in March 2015, as Labour HQ's preferred candidate, after Amina Ali who won the original selection process unexpectedly stood down amidst an increasingly "conflictual relationship" between the national Labour Party and local party members.

In a secret ballot on 21 February 2015, 237 Labour Party members in Bradford took part in the selection vote which saw Amina Ali winning with 142 votes. Naz Shah received just 13 votes. However, after Ali resigned her candidacy within just seventy-two hours citing personal reasons, Naz Shah was imposed as the new candidate by the Labour Party National Executive. Controversy was further sparked by widespread rumours that despite her being the best performer at the hustings, the national party pressured Amina Ali to withdraw.

Fatima Patel, Editor of the Asian Sunday Bradford, summed up the disputations: "I am deeply concerned that Naz Shah’s selection has created wide cracks between Labour Central and the local party who feel undermined because they feel that they were sidelined in the candidate selection process. If local Labour Party members and councillors are saying they do not support Naz Shah’s candidacy, how is Bradford West’s interest going to be served if she wins the elections in the face of a divided local party?"

Nevertheless, Naz Shah continued to enjoy favour from the national Labour Party - originally being dubbed one of the "stars of the new intake". Harriet Harman reflected that Shah "will represent not just the people in her constituency, but all the people who feel they've had an absolutely terrible time and want somebody to fight for them". Yvette Cooper, during a campaigning visit to the region, declared that she was "so proud of the work Naz has been doing" and "all the people she has been talking to".

Election controversy
Shah won the Bradford West constituency with a majority of 11,420 over George Galloway in May 2015.

On 10 May 2015, Galloway announced an intention to challenge the result, alleging that false statements and malpractice related to postal votes during the campaign meant that the result of the election should be set aside, but did not in fact launch a legal challenge.

On the other hand while congratulating Shah on "her successful and resounding election", the Fawcett Society expressed concern that "the continued opposition of the unsuccessful Respect Party candidate George Galloway, to Shah's election is the culmination of a sexist electoral campaign by Galloway".

In July 2015, Jeremy Corbyn who also commented on Galloway's actions during the election, said that he thought "...the tactics he (George Galloway) used against our candidate, were appalling. I was quite shocked; it was appalling."

Parliamentary and political record
Naz Shah endorsed Yvette Cooper during the Labour leadership contest in 2015.

In March 2016, Naz Shah contributed to the special edition of Progress' magazine.

Shah was appointed as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, in February 2016 but was sacked only months later immediately after her antisemitic comments came to light.

Suspension from the Labour Party
Amidst an ongoing controversy in the Labour Party about anti-Semitism, Shah was discovered by blogger Paul Staines in April 2016 to have reposted a Facebook meme in August 2014 supporting the relocation of Israel to the USA. Shah also commented on the post, suggesting the plan might "save them some pocket money". In July 2014, she wrote on Facebook about a newspaper poll concerning alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza conflict that, "The Jews are rallying to the poll", and in September appeared to compare Israeli policies to those of Adolf Hitler.

Shah asserted that her views on Israel had moderated in the 20 months since the post, and on 26 April 2016, she stepped down from unpaid post as John McDonnell's PPS.

Jeremy Corbyn condemned the remarks an "offensive and unacceptable", and Naz Shah was suspended from the Labour Party on 27 April 2016.

Her views were described as normal politics in Bradford in an article by Ben Judah in The Independent, in which he described being punched in the head and called a "fucking Jew".

In an interview with Vanessa Feltz, former London mayor Ken Livingstone said that while Shah's comments were "over the top", they were not anti-Semitic. He was also suspended from Labour for "bringing the party into disrepute" as a result of remarks made during that interview, i. e., that "when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism – this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews".

Shah kept her seat on the Home Affairs Select Committee investigating the rise of anti-Semitism in the UK.

On 5 July 2016, Naz Shah's suspension was overturned, and she was reinstated. Labour's National Executive Committee gave her a formal warning, told her to apologise for bringing the party into disrepute, and warned that if there was another incident, she would be expelled.

"Shah's apologies appeared to be heartfelt. She seemed genuinely contrite" wrote John Rentoul in The Independent. "If she has seen the error of her ways, then the best way to try to persuade others that anti-Semitism is wrong might be to enlist her to the cause, not cast her to the outer darkness." Henry Zeffman of the London Evening Standard similarly wrote that Shah had in her apology "showed a genuine engagement with the anti-Semitism that has found a happy home on parts of the left, and a desire to stamp it out".

2017 general election
At the general election in June 2017, Shah was re-elected with an increased vote share, and an increased majority of 21,902 votes over the second-placed Conservative Party candidate.

Rotherham sexual abuse comments controversy
In August 2017, Shah retweeted and liked a tweet from an Owen Jones parody account. A spokesman for Ms Shah said: "This was a genuine accident eight days ago that was rectified within minutes." The tweet read: "Those abused girls in Rotherham and elsewhere just need to shut their mouths. For the good of diversity". Shah deleted the retweet, and unliked the tweet. Shah was quoted in the Rotherham Advertiser that she had been working for "over 20 years on the issues of child abuse, violence against women, and grooming".

Shah was criticised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission chief executive Rebecca Hilsenrath, who said the MP "should know better", and the controversy led to a campaign to have Shah resign or be removed from her job. A survivor of the Rotherham abuse called for Shah to make a public apology and resign.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela comment controversy
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died on 2 April 2018. Following her death, Shah paid tribute to her on Twitter, she tweeted an image of Mandela with Mandela's quote: "Together, hand in hand, with our matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country." The practice of necklacing is the summary execution and torture carried out by forcing a rubber tyre, filled with petrol, around a victim's chest and arms, and setting it on fire. Shah has deleted the tweet.