This is a famous hall for us. This is
where it all started. Our first meeting.
Very first meeting.
Ch. What's the number? How are you,
brother? Good to see you,
man. Nice to see you again, bro. How are
you? How are you, sir? Very nice.
a new
phone. I'll shake yours afterwards.
[Music]
Take take.
Excellent. Excellent.
I'm just a bit of movie footage. It's
not a photo
just place.
[Music]
We'll mingle afterwards.
We'll gather the photographers's way.
Yeah, our professional photographer is
increasingly irritated by the number of
jars. How
[Music]
about camera?
much At
least they look
Oh, there we go.
All All
[Music]
right. Everybody
Thank you.
Yes.
Mother's side.
You can't
[Music]
regime. Political party
So this is a family meeting
here because some of our colleagues
don't understand Punjabi. I like to
speak pretty like we do at
home in an official capacity. So I will
speak English. So thank you very much
for coming here and uh you're most
welcome. This is uh George, my family,
my closest family, my closest friends
and uh I feel like my two families are
meeting here today. One is my blood
family and the other is my family in
respect where I've been part of for the
last 10 years. So it gives me uh the
greatest of pleasure today. I cannot
even contain my uh pleasure and
excitement to see my family, my friends
and my colleagues today. Thank you very
much for councelor Fess.
Thank you very much for council
council. Um Adrian Long is here
councelor is
here. You're all here and you're all
most welcome. Thank you very much. Um I
won't make any speeches cuz that's not
what I'm here for today. My aim today is
to have a little social informal
gathering where my family can meet my
other family in respect and vice versa.
And uh I'm not going to make any
speeches. I'm going to ask some of our
um u candidates to say just one word,
maybe a few sentences. Introduce
yourselves to my family and I will ask
some of our counselors do similar just a
few sentences, maybe just one minute.
Tell me the counselor. Do we need to to
have a candidate to ask? Uh and then I
will ask Mr. Galloway to
uh I I think just so people know each
other is it's just a brief so people can
feel easy because there has been a
little bit of you know a distance in the
past. So um uh may I please start with
brother Sabr if you can do a very short
and we always like to as Muslims start
in the name of Allah. So bismillah.
[Music]
Um can I ask like I said I'm going to
ask some of the our counselors and our
candidates to say a very very few you
know brief words uh just introduce
yourselves please uh can I firstly ask
councelor I'll keep it really brief
sound like everyone
that's family to have the two families
meet really um you know being part of
this has been for me really meeting you
for the first time really a couple of
years ago. Uh so it's really good to
meet you in the family. Um and this is
it's not political speech, but I was
just going to say to me this year feels
like there's something special happening
again. Um and if it means that different
parts of Bradford come together from
different families and make a real
change in Bradford, you know, all I ask
that you please do do be part of this. I
think you get very there's very few
opportunities in life that come along
that need to grab them with both hands.
So I hope you can join us join the
respect family in this
matter to the point. Thank you very
much
please. Um thank you for all coming
today guys. Um for those that don't know
my name is Ishak. I I'm current
counselor for managing board. Um and as
uh professor said just a little while
ago that we have an opportunity here now
to build on this party. Um hopefully
Georgia will be um in office for the
next 5 years. So it's important that we
continue this momentum not just this
year but for the next few years as well.
So in order to we can build a party in
the council. Um currently there's only
five of us there and for those who are
politically aware uh few in numbers uh
in the council chambers here it's about
numbers game and if we haven't got the
numbers then we can't you know in terms
of pushing the real policy through so I
hope we can build on this momentum
inshallah yeah for the next few years if
we can build another four or five
councils this year another four five
next year it's a game changer so
hopefully uh with your support and
everybody else is inv West we can do
just that. Thank you very much.
Um, councelor, may I ask you to say a
few words, please? Thank you. Please
stand up. That's like asking the court
to say a few words.
Sorry. Welcome everybody. Um many of you
know me uh as a as the best lawyer in
the north and you're not wrong but um
inshallah with the grace of God I don't
all your duas I I'm the candidate for MP
in Halifax so that I can give George
another voice in parliament or play
notes and crosses when we board but
that's beside the point. Um I've had a
very very good start in Halifax martial
from all sectors of the community. Um
and um if there's family people here,
we've got family in Halifax. Please do
support me. I'll be launching our
campaign properly next week and details
will be posted out. So um inshallah we
will have a victory but I do need your
guidance and support. Thank
you. Councelor Asma, I know most of you
will have caught up on this. councelor
Asma uh left the Labour party very
recently and uh it's a pleasure for us
to welcome her into the respect party.
So I think an extra round of applause
just similarly um the next gentleman I'm
going to introduce to you is no stranger
to my family because he was more or less
a member of our family for many many
years and he has also left the Labour
party and joined respect very recently.
Mine and your good friend Adrien Lthong
How do you follow that introduction?
That's a really tough one, isn't it?
It's absolutely fantastic to to be here
to meet so many old friends and of
course in in the place that I love,
Bradford West. Uh as most of you know,
of course, I worked for Marsha for many
many years. It's certainly a pleasure to
be working with George right now. I
think he does deserve our support. We
all know George's position on so many
issues and it certainly sings from my
side of events and the Labour party
doesn't have a chance of singing from
anybody's side of the event right now.
Um they're not supporting the issues
that would be close to our hearts.
Certainly not in Bradford and the wider
communities in in the UK certainly not
outside the south of the and I think the
Labour party just now a complete waste
of space. A colleague of George has said
to me the other day, they are timid and
enfeebled. He's far clever than me and I
thought he was absolutely right. So
let's hope George not only gets a
majority, but let's hope he gets a
really big majority increasing the one
that he got last time. Thank you very
much.
Adrian has served as a counselor in
Bradford for three times. Three times.
Three times. and he's also standing
again for respect in Clayton War. He has
also been a counselor before. So if
anybody has any um friends and
colleagues there, please help. I forgot
to ask for support for myself, didn't I?
I'm always terribly modest. You're
always very modest. You always uh worry
more about others than yourself. Uh
you're welcome to respect
party. Uh I want to introduce some of
our um uh council candidates before I
ask Mr. Galloway to speak. First of all
um first of course um brother uh please
will you stand
up has also joined respect he's a
former it's absolute uh pleasure for us
all to have you with us brother uh we
have shared our views many times and we
share those views on Palestine on
Kashmir and all those things and this is
one brother who served as a counselor
but doesn't consider himself as a
politician and I have a great respect
for him because he considers himself as
an activist and that is a more uh um
honorable position to take than to call
yourself a politician which is sometimes
a little bit of a dirty name. So brother
welcome to you as well. So
I want to ask brother Shiraz who's our
um council candidate in Tawward to
please introduce yourself very briefly
to
My name is Shiraz. Obviously, many of
you know me here, especially since
family. George Galloway is going to be
the MP. Get me in and get George
Galloway in. I'm sure I'll do a good job
in the council and he'll be doing good
job in the parliament.
[Applause]
But don't just get him and him in. We
have other candidates
too. We have a Muhammad Salis. I don't
think he's here. Is at work. He's our
candidate in Maningum. So please support
him in Manum. Brother Shahik, where is
he? Yeah. Brother Shahik, please
introduce yourself. He's our candidate
in the city where the Bradford College
and Bradford University is. So brother
Shahik, please say a few words.
Uh thank you very much respected elders,
friends. Asalam alaikum. Uh those of you
that know me, my name is Shanik. Uh
those of you that don't know me, uh my
name is still.
Yes. Most of the stuff I think all the
uh you know the uh my colleagues have
covered everything. Uh if you know
anybody in the city ward, please please
please uh get out there and uh give us a
support. Uh we need all your support.
That's it basically. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Uh I think our
other candidates aren't here. So um uh I
will leave that for another day. I would
like uh this program here was the
brainchild of myself and brother Dal
here. So I would like you to say
I reserve my my comments and my speech
for the next. Okay.
[Applause]
Yes. We have a brother Khaled Mahmud.
He's standing in Keith East. So he's not
here. So little round of applause for
him as well.
[Applause]
We have
Halima. We've just selected Halima very
very recently. Is she here? Uh I did
invite her earlier on but maybe she's a
little busy being from here. A big round
of applause.
Our other brother Rob isn't here. He
will be standing in uh Thornton.
Basically, we've kind of covered
Bradford West, all our worlds in the
Bradford West. So hopefully inshallah uh
if God wills it, then we will have a
greater success this time than we did
even last time. And this time I think
we'll be um much bigger majority even
compared to the last time. Now thank you
very much NASA my next door neighbor
there. How you doing sir? How you doing?
Good to see you guys. Good to see you.
Uh can I ask Mr. George Galloway now? He
doesn't need much of an instruction, so
I won't bother wasting that time cuz
we're already a little bit of late. So,
may I ask you put your hands together,
please, for your MP, for my
MP, somebody who
has somebody who has not only been a
friend, but genuinely like a brother. I
have two brothers, Azar and J, who are
here as well, but I never have an older
brother and I always wanted one. I
complain to my dad often and say, "Why
do you have to make me the eldest
one?" So, he's my older brother. Please
give him a big
hand. Councelor
Adrien. Uh if I missed uh any No.
Distinguished elders, scholars, brothers
and sisters, assalamu alalaykum.
It's a real honor actually to be here to
meet your family Arshad uh with whom I
have traveled far uh in terms of years
in terms of political battles and
literally traveled miles. Arshad and I
uh have traveled many times to Gaza to
break the siege on Gaza in our great
convoys. Uh and we are as close as
brothers and so this occasion is
particularly auspicious. It is I hope by
marrying together of the respect family
and your family and I thank you and
brother Ghalip who has uh who have put
this uh event together and I hope that
we can all of us travel many miles in
the right direction on the straight path
must together because that's what we try
to stand for. We of course make
mistakes. Sometimes we uh stop when we
should keep going, keep going when we
should stop. We sometimes take a wrong
turning or two. But if we have in mind
that straight path, hack, justice,
right? If we have that in mind, we will
never be apart for long.
And
uh it's been a great pleasure for me to
spend the last three years as the member
of parliament for Bradford West. And it
all began in this very room. The very
first more people than there are here
this evening. But 20 days later, we were
thousands. Indeed, we pulled more than
18,000 votes in the shortest bi-election
campaign in British political history,
certainly modern history. And it was an
earthquake uh the reverberations of
which are still being felt. When I
reentered the house, I confronted Prime
Minister David Cameron. I stood up. The
speaker recognized me and I said as I
was saying before I was rudely
interrupted because of course the issues
that propelled us remain the same today
as they were then. One of the many
reasons why I want to be in the next
parliament, which will be a hung
parliament, where individual MPs have
far more power and
influence, is because the Chillcott
inquiry report is imminent.
And I want to be Tony Blair's prosecutor
and
chief on my feet day after day in the
chamber making you proud that I'm your
MP and hunting Tony Blair all the way to
prison in the H. That's my as long as
God gives me breath. Tony Blair will
never have a moment's peace for the
crime that he committed which killed a
million people which extremised the
world sent extremism cascading
everywhere. Trouble everywhere. Death
and destruction everywhere. All down to
Tony Blair and George W. Bush. There's
not much I can do to pursue Bush. though
I'm trying, but I'm definitely going to
pursue Tony Blair. But that's not the
main reason why I'm standing. I'm
standing because the job we began here
has not been yet finished. And the fact
that longstanding and powerful members
of the Labor Party are coming on board
the respect train is because the Labor
Party of which I was a member for 36
years and may end my life as a member
again, if it becomes a Labor Party
again, has gone seriously off the tracks
and it's paying a high price for that
Tony Blair lost millions of Labor voters
and they've lost more since he lost half
of the membership of the Labor Party.
Imagine half of the membership and
they're losing more still. And of
course, if they behave as the opposite
of a Labor party, they can hardly expect
real Labor voters to vote for them
because people vote for you because you
stand up for them. And they have not
been standing up for you. If I take just
one issue,
Islamophobia, the hatred and fear of
Muslims. Rachel Reeves with whom I was
on a uh BBC Any questions from Doncaster
on Friday night passed on BBC Radio 4.
She accused me of creating
division in Britain. And I said there is
already a division. The difference is
I'm on one side of that division clearly
and consistently.
What are these divisions? There's a
division between those that hate Muslims
and those who are Muslims and those who
stand with them. I'm clear about that.
I'm not creating the division. It exists
already. I'm just clearly on the side of
the Muslims and have been all of my
life. long before I ever set foot in
Bradford. Long before I ever asked any
of you to vote for me. There's a
division between those who want war and
those who want peace. There's a division
between those that want the poor and the
working people to pay the price for the
crash and the collapse of the banks and
those who say that the people who should
pay that price are the people who caused
it. None of the immigrants in Britain
caused the crash in
2008. It wasn't Ali who runs the corner
shop or Muhammad who has a restaurant in
Manningham that caused the crash. Why
should we be asked to pay for it? These
are real genuine political divisions.
Now in that bi-election, I'm well aware
that families were divided and yours was
of course one of them. But now we can
come together. I'm not fighting Iran.
He's fighting somewhere else. I wish him
every
success. And I hope that those who
supported him last time, as some of you
I know did, can wholeheartedly support
us this time. And if Iran is the MP for
Bradford East, I want to work with him.
I think we'd be quite a powerful duo.
and especially if Labor is in
government, which I very much hope that
it will be. So, let's get a big victory
here because we need to change this
city. When I arrived here, most of you
had become so used to it, you no longer
noticed it. But when I arrived here,
there was a big hole in the center of
the
city. And I I actually was astounded at
the size of it. And then I was more
astounded when I learned it had been
like that for more than eight years. And
nobody was doing anything about it. But
we did. We occupied it. We climbed over
the fence and occupied it. Put our tents
there. Rattled their cage in the city
hall. I even went to Australia to rattle
the cage of Westfield in Sydney.
Alhamdulillah. 3 years later,
Westfield's there for everybody to see.
And this summer, people will be working
in it. People will be shopping in it.
They'll be bringing thousands, tens of
thousands actually, of new people into
the city of Bradford. We'll be dining in
the restaurants here and using the mini
cabs and so on. That's unless the mini
cabs are pushed out of business by Uber,
the American multinational. But I'm also
the man fighting against Uber in
Bradford and in Britain. When I arrived
here, the hodian was shrink wrapped and
falling down. We saved it and we got the
government to stump up millions to make
it the jewel that it could and should
be. When I was just here a few weeks,
the government announced that they might
close the national media museum, the
only national institution that we have.
And even the Tory minister, culture
minister Ed Bea congratulated me from
the dispatch box for having led the
campaign which saved the National Media
Museum. But there's so much still to do.
Our schools are the second worst schools
in England. Imagine now when you're the
second bottom of the football league,
you usually get the S. But in Bradford
Council, they never get the sack and
they never resign. We need people who
understand the problem of schools and
education in Bradford in positions of
power. Councelor Fasel, who is the
expert, national expert on education,
the man who stood up first against the
Trojan hoax which tried to blame us for
the problems that they created and
sustained. He should be running the
schools in Bradford. And if we make the
kind of advance in the local elections
that we hope to make, maybe you will be
running the
schools. You may have heard that I had
to limp in here because I made a very
big mistake. I decided to play football
with a group of 15y olds in a back court
in Manham and I'm still limping as a
result. I went to the Barri. The staff
were all very nice, I must say. Well,
most of
them. And uh they looked at my uncle and
I said, "How bad is it?" They said,
"Well, we'll give you a scan."
Foolishly, I thought I was going to go
down the corridor and get the scan. I
said, "When can I get the scan?" They
said, "6 weeks from now." I said, "If I
if I shelled out the money now, when
could I get it?" They said, "If you pay,
you could get it this afternoon."
That's not acceptable. The Barri where
people work hard has some of the worst
statistics in
Britain. Child
mortality, infection rates, mortality as
a whole. They fail tests that they
should be passing with flying colors.
And of course, the unemployment amongst
our youth. I lived for a long time on
Hollings Road. Now I live in Wetley
Hill. When I was in Hollings Road, it
was like Piccadilly Circus at night with
young people finding the devil finding
work for idle hands. That's what happens
when you've got mass unemployment
amongst young people. The devil finds
work for their idol hands. And we all
know what I'm talking about. We have to
make Bradford great again. It once was
great. It can be great. It should be
great. But we need political change if
we're going to make it great
again. Thank you
[Applause]
very uh in a few. How you doing?
Welcome. You time them well. All the
speeches are finished in the
foot. Can I just say George thank you
very much for that councilors um and
George our member of parliament can I
just make a personal request to you for
the last 10 years we've been working
very hard in Bradford to bring about
political change I've spent my half life
in I had hair basically 10 years when I
started politics and the whole reason I
I I used to hate politics when I was
young at school I used to hate it but
the state of Our city is such that it
kind of something within me said with
something has got to be done and I
became active. My request is just one
simple request to you and and the
counselors and those of you who perhaps
have you hopefully will be a counselor
as well. I have only one request. This
election is not about getting you a job
or you a job or anybody a job. This is
about the people of my one request to
you is this city and the people of this
city has suffered for decades under the
rule of incompetent councils and members
of parliament who have only been there
for their own sakes. My request is to
you only this. Please work for the
people of Bradford in the next five
years. Let's change people's lives.
Let's get something done in Bradford
that we the people can be proud of
eventually. That's the following
request.
[Applause]
Can I just say one of Sorry. Easter so
the pope should be allowed.
Yeah.
The final thing is uh in the uh
Telegraph at August, I don't know
whether you read it last Friday, the
regional Labor Party said when they
heard that we were going to Halifax,
that as far as they are concerned, it's
a two horse race, meaning Labor and
Conservatives. What I'd like to put out
to them is that there's another type of
horse in town and the breed is beyond
their control.
very very talented and distinguished
individuals in our party and sometimes I
think one of ours I'll be one of ours is
worth any 10 of theirs so we need to be
proud of
ours just one last comment from you and
then because we only have this place for
1 hour, I would like to finish and then
please some refreshments just so please
uh and then of course say hello to Mr.
Um I I was um humbly to lead the prayers
today and the verse that uh came to mind
the surah is out of 6,600 holy QR there
for the whole of mankind and one of my
favorites and it's the famous of all the
prophets
to Jesus Abraham Moses and Muhammad
peace be upon and one of the practice of
the prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam
all the prophets was to stand for truth
and Lastly, if I can just share the name
meaning is so small and beautiful and I
recited it today and I felt you know
this is important that you know in the
name of God the most gracious
most while us by
time is not on our side man is in loss.
Except those who exalt one another to
the truth. Exalt exalt and encourage one
another to the truth to love to the and
and and practice what they preach the
truth and actually then also uh practice
patience. So and you know that is really
in a nutshell a universal verse and you
know you could stand in the Christian
world, the Jewish world, the Hindu
world, the Buddhist world. This is the
Adamic and beautiful nature of the of
the Quran. And you know, far from
Judaism, you know, when Muslims pray,
you know, we we
say to end the prayers, we're actually
praying for the whole of the entire
world, north, south, and east and west
when we're actually doing that movement.
So I just want to uh I'm very very
touched by all the speeches and you know
and again uh brother George has always
been practicing that particular verse
from the moment it stepped forward and
sorry before that when I went on those
missions when I took that double decker
bus when I first went by to as a as a
human shield to protect
I just finish with it. Mr. Galloway has
been working for Palestine and Kashmir
and the issues that affect people,
brown, black people like us, Muslims
long long long before. I have had the
pleasure to know him for over a dozen
years even when he was in the Labour
party and we were all in the Labor
Party. Uh so he has got a lifetime
record. He's fought for us even when we
weren't there and we didn't know him. In
fact, somebody said to him, you know,
you're you always stand up for Muslims
and black and Asian or those who are
oppressed. You're a white man with a
black heart. He didn't really quite
realize what he meant by
that. You're maybe white on the inside,
but you're black, but he's he's putting
servicing. One colleague said, you know,
Ash, u 10 years ago, nine years ago, we
used to laugh at you standing outside
mosques and giving literature out. And I
said, well, you didn't know about it,
but I was actually working for you guys.
So now we can make ourselves worthy so
you could come and join us. So it's a
big family. I want to thank you all once
again. Um officially we are over. Please
say m hello to Mr. Galloway. Feel free.
If there's any issues you have, please
speak to some of our counselors, our
potential counselors. Mr. Galloway,
speak to myself because we're family. Uh
any issues, please do uh speak to him.
Please mingle and enjoy the
refreshments. Thank you very much for
coming.
Keep my phone up.
What I'm
[Music]
doing is
My