Khalid Mahmood

The New York Times has it in for Britain. And the latest beneficiaries are the Islamists condemned by a UK government inquiry into the activist takeover of schools. I am the most senior serving Muslim parliamentarian, and have been an MP in Birmingham for over twenty years. The NYT's ‘Trojan Horse Affair’ podcast portrays a city that is unrecognisable to me. It is an act of utter irresponsibility. Hamza Syed and Brian Reed present eight programmes seeking to make the case that a 2014 letter ‘Operation Trojan Horse’ detailing an activist plan to influence local schools, was a hoax. Without proof the letter is genuine, it follows there was no plot, and indeed little or no problem.

What should we make of the Batley and Spen by-election, won by Labour with a majority of just 323 votes? The victory, slim though it may be, is a credit to Kim Leadbeater who – with a gutsy campaign – has proved her doubters wrong and done her sister, the late Jo Cox, proud. This was by no means an easy campaign to fight. During the most toxic by-election for many years, Leadbeater became a target for two hostile and overlapping groups: aggressive self-proclaimed Muslim ‘leaders’, who with George Galloway tried to prise the constituency’s large Muslim population away from Labour, and the far-left in the party, who tried to use the by-election to breathe life back into Corbynism.

The election of a Conservative MP in Hartlepool for the first time in the constituency’s modern history is yet another wake-up call for my party. Peter Mandelson once enjoyed a 17,500 majority here. Now the Tories are deep into what was once safe Labour territory – the industrial heartlands of the North – with a 7,000 majority of their own. In the West Midlands it looks again like Labour will lose out on the mayoral race and more. What has gone wrong for the Labour party and our wider movement? My view is simple: in the past decade, Labour has lost touch with ordinary British people. A London-based bourgeoisie, with the support of brigades of woke social media warriors, has effectively captured the party.