11/03/2016 Newsnight

Tonight a Labour MP speaks out about the shocking intimidation

designed to frighten them away from political office.

In recent weeks, when I have spoken up about this issue,

I felt extremely pressured to be silent on the things that I know

to be true, the issues I have already raised.

And, I think, in many ways, it represents the culture

of our party in some ways that we need to change.

We talk to some of the women making the allegations.

Stuff was posted through my letterbox.

When I opened it, it was a picture of the page three nude

model and a picture of my head attached.

suggests David Cameron's a "free rider" over Libya.

Could this careless talk cost the special relationship?

Can a dog tell us about why the word "Elite" is becoming the insult most

So, we think Bertie here is the best creature to help us chew

through Britain's latest and most troubling

We'll puncture the semantics of the campaign so far

musician Thurston Moore looks back at 40 years of punk rock.

I want to recapture what I've found so fresh and dangerous about punk

and what lessons we can learn from it today.

The Labour leadership stands accused tonight of being unwilling to deal

with claims of systematic misogyny and the "blocking" of Muslim women

as councillors in some areas by male members of the party

In a moment, an interview with a Labour MP

who tells us he's felt pressured to be silent on things

But first our latest report on this issue.

Since Newsnight first revealed the intimidation and shaming

of Muslim women in parts of the Labour Party five weeks ago,

we have been told that some are actually being threatened

with violence by sinister elements within their communities.

by our special correspondent Katie Razzall

a number of other Muslim women have contacted us,

often under the cloak of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

We are talking about really sinister elements.

I had phone calls to say your son is five, do you want him to be six?

You're doing this interview anonymously.

I live in fear for myself and my family.

Five weeks ago, Newsnight broadcast claims by Muslim women that Muslim

men from within the Labour Party blocked them from becoming local

The charity, Muslim Women's Network UK, wrote to the Labour leader,

Jeremy Corbyn, demanding an inquiry into what it

A month on, more troubling claims have come to light.

We're talking about women actually fearing for their lives,

saying we were getting harassed, threatened with violence.

They are so scared, they don't want to go to the police,

and don't even want to come out publicly

We are calling this Asian woman Zahara.

A former Labour councillor, she makes pretty startling

allegations about some of her Pakistani-heritage former

colleagues, who are still Labour councillors today.

On one occasion, she claims the police gave councillors sexually

explicit video footage to watch before making a decision

about whether a local club should be shut down.

The decision ultimately should have been to close

the establishment down because of inappropriate behaviours

between young white girls and Asian males, that

were being shown in the video.

I was clearly told to stop questioning by a hand gesture

and a nudge by senior male councillors that were Asian,

It was a very prominent Asian businessmen that supports us.

I agree, it is very serious, but I think it is

Zahara also says those same councillors regularly

persuaded Asian women suffering domestic violence to go back

They would go to the councillors and they would be told,

Luckily those women got away because I just persevered.

Newsnight has spoken to 25 Asian women across the UK.

All complain of Labour councillors and members of Pakistani heritage

They say they block vocal independent Asian women

like Arooj Shah from entering local government,

or try to get them deselected if they do.

In some parts of the UK, like in Oldham, where Ms Shah

is a Labour councillor, the party has taken over

She says that is because they know, in her predominantly Asian ward,

there is even resistance from inside the Labour Party

There are Labour Party members who will support my

two ward colleagues who are both Asian men.

When it comes to me, will support anybody but me.

They are members of the local Labour Party.

Anyone who tries to sugar-coat it or present it in anyway is just

Some of them have come up with derogatory

comments like, she is a Muslim woman, she shouldn't

Some of us have actually dragged them onside and gone,

Where in Islam does it say a female cannot represent us?

Councillor Shah told me, influential local Labour members

spread rumours that she sleeps around, that she is corrupt,

a money-launderer, and brief against her to voters.

The regional party supports but it is

hard to gather the evidence to push through a successful complaint.

Stuff was posted through my letterbox.

When I opened it, it was a picture of a page three nude model

and a picture of my head attached to that.

That is a tactic often used to dishonour Muslim women and it has

You know, pornographic images with my face on.

Najma Hafeez was the first Muslim woman on Birmingham Council back

I had phone calls to say, your son is five, do you want him

Do you know who was making the phone calls?

It was one of my colleagues, so-called.

And, unfortunately, a member of my own community.

The only way we will stop it is by exposing this.

It is not easy for me to say this against my

own community but it is bad practice and we must stop it.

Labour has a better record than other parties on getting

The women we have spoken to say the party often turns a blind eye

when Pakistani heritage members influence

the democratic process by packing individual wards

One woman said Asian councillors were threatening

and scaring my family into getting me to step aside.

Another said, these men were capable of anything.

In the end, I was deselected, despite all

Another ex-councillor explained how she was ousted.

One of the local councillors had been recruiting family and friends

Zahara claims her deselection was masterminded by some of her fellow

councillors because she refused to give in to their demands.

It became very apparent on the night.

These were people I had never seen before.

They were told to be there by certain

senior Asian councillors, and to vote in a certain way.

It is generations of people who have done this.

There were two or three young Asian males

that found the courage to ring me up and tell me and said

I sent letters of complaint to the regional office and the head

I was told there was no case to answer.

Newsnight has seen other complaints from ex-councillors,

detailing what they claim were election flaws and misogynist

Most women told us their complaints were not addressed.

The Labour Party gave us their statement. The Labour Party has

transformed the representation of women in politics. Any complaints or

evidence of sexism received by the Labour Party are dealt with fairly,

according to our procedures and the law.

Earlier, I spoke to the Labour MP for Luton South, Gavin Shuker.

I started by asking him about his reaction to Katie's report.

Katie's film is really shocking. I feel most shopped for the women who

have had to come out and make this case. They deserve some cover from

the wider Labour Party. It is clear the stories they were telling ones

that chime with my own experience, actually. I think we have a real

problem in getting capable young women from the Asian community

selected for some it is not good enough to say we are the most

representative party. We need to uphold values and representation

procedures. I know you are not just interested in your own constituency,

but tell us about your constituency. I have worked hard to make sure each

selection at local Gottman and for the Parliamentary seat have been

done fairly. The real problem is in broadly South Asian communities and

constituencies, it is easy to sign up members of your friends and

family can get them along to meetings. This is called membership

packing and is expressly outlawed in the rules of the Labour Party. We

spoke to Najma Hafeez, who was threatened, that her son would not

reach his sixth birthday. She seemed a rest. Do you think things are

getting worse? There is a huge upward pressure of people who want

to be representatives of our party. They are consistently being frozen

out of selection process is because the other most capable on the most

threatening. I do not know if it is getting any worse but the situation,

in my opinion, for those women, could not get any worse. After you

raise this, what was the response? I raised concerns of membership

packing and what came from it which is essentially good, capable Asian

women not being selected. Since I have been a Member of Parliament,

the things I have put forward were genuinely shocking and still it

feels like there is no support in terms of tackling these abuses on

the ground. Katie got a response from the Labour Party that said we

deal individually with instances, or allegations of instances, of racism

and sexism with the proper procedures. Is that enough? I have

sympathy with dealing on a narrow points. What we are talking about is

a cultural issue that needs to be challenged on every single level.

That requires elected parliamentarians and politicians

challenging the cultured day in and day out. You talk about it being a

cultural issue. In saying that, do you feel worried you will be

fingered as a racist? I do not, personally. I feel like I am

representing my Muslim Asian members who say to me consistently we are

good, capable and frozen out. This is the challenge for the Labour

Party. It used to be we could rely on blocks and votes from

communities. I think that is less true. This is an electoral

imperatives. We cannot carry on treating the Muslim community as

balls. We need to serve up quake candidates at every level. The

community knows when abuse is apparent. Have you spoken to MPs

with large south Asian communities? I have. There is a sense of, if we

were to pick up a fuss, with anything happen? Someone who has

kicked up a fuss may be right, actually. Is that not deeply

depressing? Deeply depressing and brutal that a member of the

Parliamentary Labour Party has to come up to provide cover for women

in our community who are suffering as a result of our action. Why do

you talk about having spoken to the general secretary of the Labour

Party, what do you want to happen? You'll I have been disappointed with

the response from the Labour Party and the allegations made by

Newsnight. I have felt pressured to be silent on the things I know to be

true, issues I have already raised. I think, in many ways, it represents

the culture of our party in some ways we need to change. When people

come forward with legitimate concerns, they should be back, not

silenced. What you want Jeremy Corbyn to do? You'll I would like

robust action from the leadership, both from the NEC and the leader of

the leather party, to say, if there are these practices, we will take

time to sort them out. -- the Labour Party. We will seek to silence them

and work with them. That is something Jeremy could do.

so said Barack Obama in a forthright interview

in the latest edition of The Atlantic magazine.

feeling the loosening of the leash no doubt,

Among the free riders, France and Britain,

at least as far as the Libya operation was concerned.

Obama said that some were eager to drag the United States

into sectarian conflicts that sometimes had little to do

with American interests, and that his support of the NATO

military intervention in Libya had been a mistake,

driven in part by his belief that Britain and France would bear more

of the burden of the operation than they did.

VOICEOVER: Right now, the so-called special relationship

between the UK and the US

does not seem quite as special as it did back then.

Alas, I cannot imitate this wonderful American-English accent.

when the relationship has been bumpier.

This time, the bump in the road has been caused by Obama's frustration

in Europe's tendency to push the US to act,

and then showing an unwillingness to put any skin in the game.

became distracted by a range of other things,

The White House has been backpedalling today.

saying the President did not mean to be critical of David Cameron.

It has said that the US is also to blame for the chaos in Libya.

changes in tone depending on who is in office,

A President soon to be off the leash or a new

hard headed approach to the US's junior partner across the water.

STUDIO: Joining me now from Stanford University

former Under Secretary of State under

George W Bush and former US ambassador to NATO.

We know that Barack Obama has rowed back but were you surprised by the

tone of his responses in the magazine? I was, I have great

respect for Barack Obama, what he was trying to articulate is a

sentiment shared by a lot of Americans across both parties, the

weakening of the French military, and the cutting of the military

budget. They weakening of the military when the arable resolutions

were breaking out in 2011 and 2012 but to somehow suggest that Britain

and France let us down, I think it in another way, I think the US

should have played a bigger role in the Libya operation in 2011. There

was a clear view minute imperative to save the people of Benghazi from

colonel Gaddafi and his army, the fact the United States took a step

back was a mistake in a Nato operation. We are in this together,

we have always fought with Britain and France, we could have done

better. I know that you support Barack Obama, would you say that in

a way, this unloading was a defensive mechanism? It was part of

an extraordinary interview that he gave to the magazine, The Atlantic.

Probably the most sophisticated expression of his views on the use

of power, he went into great detail about his refusal to act in Syria.

This was the context of the remarks. My own opinion is that on both sides

of the Atlantic we are only as strong as our commitment to each

other. It is true that the United States accounts for 75% of the

defence spending of all of the Nato allies, and so to in the opinion of

Barack Obama, take them out, have them play a second role, it was not

workable. -- secondary role. If we are looking to account for the

failure of Libya, we should have stayed in, having gone in, we should

have tried to help them put their civil is Asian back together, and

neither United States nor the United Kingdom did that. Do you think that

his relationship with David Cameron is a close one, inasmuch as Barack

Obama is close to any otherworldly do? It has been said by many people

that Barack Obama does not have a lot of close relationships with

world leaders. My sense, I am an outsider, I think they have great

respect for each other, that Britain has been a great friend to the

United States in many ways. I hope the reverse is true, I hope the

British people feel the same way, about the United States. They tend

to work well together. This particular article came out of the

blue, it was surprising for a lot of people, if anything, who should we

blame for the problems of the Middle East? Iran, the Islamic State, the

jihadi groups that are wreaking havoc, but we should not blame our

greatest ally in the world. I think there is a special relationship and

Britain is still the closest friend the United States has. Thank you

very much. When Tony Blair dived into the EU

Referendum debate this morning calling for more passion

from the Pro-EU side, he also deplored

the use of the E word. He challenged the idea,

put about by many who want a Brexit, that backing Britain's membership

of the EU was the choice of

the political elite, opining that there are plenty

of elites on the other side too. and when did it become such

loaded dirty word? In a moment we'll be

discussing that, and whether the whole debate over

the referendum needs broadening, but first: here's our resident

etymologist John Sweeney. VOICEOVER: Britain's never-ending

class war has spawned a new mutation in the last few weeks. The elites

Are under attack. Who are these elites, of whom they speak, well, to

find out more, there is no better a creature than dirty, he is half a

toy poodle, and half a whippet, he has a poor in both camps, so to

speak, so we think he is the best creature to help us choose through

Britain's latest and most troubling social dilemma. Battle commenced

from Newsnight one month ago. What is very clear about the 75 year, in

this referendum, it is exactly the same, the establishment and the

elites, including this great corporation of which Devon is a

member... Are you a savage men? -- Evan Are you a lead? -- are you

establishment? Others will judge. And I do. The one-time British king,

what the Mayor of London calls wiff-waff. Two components, that the

people who got to the top did so in a rigged game, that they have the

connections rather than having the ability and working hard. Also, once

they got there are, they want to self perpetuate, give it to other

people that they know rather than the public, so there is a distance

between the elite and those who elect them. As the Euro referendum

hits fever pitch, or at least, a host of golden daffodils, Bertie and

I went in search of the elite. I asked the owner of the British

bulldog whether he was a member of the elite. It depends upon what you

are classing as an elite, there is an elite in all sorts of things.

Don't need the microphone, Bentley, please! LAUGHTER

Would you say that Bentley is a member of an elite? In the dock

while, I would say, yes. Are you a member of the elite? Certainly not!

-- in the dog world. Those who are arguing in favour of the exit are

not elite and those that want to stay our elite, what do you think?

I'm interested in remaining, it is nothing to do with economics, iron

just post-war, and somehow the idea of a united Europe attracts me more

than the idea of a fragmented Europe. We have always bred old

English sheepdog, we had the 1990 winner at Crufts. Is your dog a

member of the elite? No, he's just a pet, and me, not really. All the

people you talk to that want to stay in are getting something out of it,

I am getting nothing out of it but I do and see the point of being ruled

by Brussels. If you want to do something even in the park you have

got to get permission. Unbelievable. The ping-pong man told me that he

went to a comprehensive. Have you had elocution lessons? I have never

had elocution lessons, I would love a society where it did not matter

what kind of a jacket you walk, even if it was as hideous as that one. It

would only matter, your ability and your work ethic, not your accent,

not anything else. Bertie, give me back the microphone! Whether you are

for leave all remain, class still dogs our society. As they say, never

work with children or animals. STUDIO: Joining me to debate the

debate about Europe are the writer Will Self, and Munira Mirza,

London's Deputy Mayor for Education and Culture. We will go on to talk

about the broader Topix, in terms of the tenor of the campaign, but your

thought, leaving the EU, why do you think that calling those in the

Remain campaign the elite is an effective tool?

It reflects the way in which a lot of people feel about the EU, as

being so far removed from their lives, the decision-making is very

remote, they think it is anti-democratic. That sense that the

elite is not thinking about their interests, that is quite a potent

one. Would you use language like that? In your everyday discourse, on

the campaign, would you agree with using those sentiments? Talking

about an elite? Which wants to remain, and, as you say, having the

reins of power. You do not have the reins of power, you want to leave.

The amazing thing about the referendum is that people are being

given a choice, so fundamental to our democracy, about how we are

governed, the democracy, where we put money, borders. The idea that...

And another unelected elite may make those decisions in Brussels, the

idea that you may be able to overturned that and take control

back, that is exciting. It is becoming a bit of a catch all, this

term, it is a way of people registering... I agree to an extent,

it is a registration of a disconnection from the political

class. By pushing it further and further away, to Brussels, we can

ignore what is on the end of the fork rather than domestic league, a

disconnection within existing politics. That is why semantically

it becomes very fluid and slippery, it can be applied anywhere. The idea

of people troughing on the Brussels gravy train, that is true, I can

think of some very egregious examples in the political class,

Neil Kinnock, for example, corruption Commissioner in Brussels,

for seven years, and picked up a very generous salary, and that kind

of thing. People are angry about it. It was focused on MPs in Westminster

if you years ago. It is a free-floating dissatisfaction. You

work for Boris, he sent you an e-mail saying, signed up to the

campaign or get sacked. Nobody has been sacked, that is worth

mentioning, he said it was a mistake, able offering to speak

their mind. Look at what has happened to them overnight, he has

come out, and instantly, his rhetoric has become a apocalyptic,

in true Borisian style, he is talking about dictators and all of

this. This is a general sentiment, we can recognise, many people around

the world, not just the UK, very disengaged in politics, that is why

we see the rise of things like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. If

you say you disengaged from Westminster, they say yes, if you

say disengaged from Brussels, they say yes, they would even disengage

from some little constituency. What we are missing in the debate is an

understanding of what the issues are, it is in the interest of

neither side is to discuss the truth, it doesn't matter if you have

a vote to leave all remain, the fundamental issues of the control,

the borders, for example, and over the people control of fundamental

issues of government, will not be improved in either way. More people

in this country know the names of their MPs than their MEPs, and it is

true that British exit will not solve overnight the centre

disengagement, all the problems of democracy, but it is an important

moment, giving people the choice over some very real issues in our

society, about the money that we send over, who makes decisions about

what border should be, who prioritises... It is more to do with

the political class trying to reinvigorate its sense of purpose,

we are living in a more free trial than ever that we are living in a

world which is more febrile than ever. It is not about beliefs and

fear mongering. It is important that we have these arguments. If they are

about the right thing. People will get a chance to hear different

arguments, that is why the BBC are doing a televised debate. The think

find rather worrying, there is a lazy assumption that all the people

who want to leave our little Englanders, xenophobic, acolytes of

Nigel Farage. -- the thing that I find rather worrying. So that if you

are right thinking, you must want to remain. There is a laziness in that

thinking, there is some very good internationalist arguments,

regressive arguments for wanting to leave. I have not heard any, all I

have heard is Tory MPs action saying that he is in favour of which is

exit and his headline argument is money, money in your pocket, he is

of Ghanaian origin, but what tipped him was the issue of people from

outside the European Union being discriminated against in terms of

it. I'm afraid we have got to wrap this up, I'm sure that we will come

back to it several times over the course of the vote.

Now Artsnight, where this week's guest Editor is Thurston Moore,

THIS PROGRAMME CONTAINS SOME STRONG LANGUAGE

40 years ago, I was an out-of-place teenager

inspired to move to Manhattan to join in the punk revolution.

Musicians like Patti Smith and the Ramones