The seemingly close ties between Adam and Yusuf will invite further scrutiny of his campaign after a man who celebrated his victory was charged with a terrorism offence.
The government’s independent adviser on political violence, Lord Walney, told the JC he thinks the pro-Palestine MP has “serious questions to answer” over the conduct of some of his supporters.
Yusuf first lent her support to Adam publicly after anti-Israel firebrand George Galloway was elected as the MP for Rochdale in February.
The day after his victory, she said in a video posted to Instagram: “We are now seeing a rise of independent candidates… I know there are many people around Leicester South asking who can we vote for if it's not for Labour.
“So if you attended a protest in Leicester recently we saw the introduction of a new independent candidate called Shockat Adam. Now many of us have seen him speak as a volunteer for Mend [Muslim Engagement and Development] and he has served the community for a long time now.
“So I think he needs our help and it's time to send some shockwaves. Pun intended... Leicester will no longer be a punching bag... Time to send shockwaves all the way to Parliament.”
Shockat Adam MP (centre) was filmed days after the election at his makeshift campaign headquarters with Wajeeda Joseph (wearing orange) (Photo: Channel 4)[Missing Credit]
Adam, who was born in Malawi before growing up in Leicester, runs an opticians business that he owns with his brother, Ismail Patel, who founded Friends of Al-Aqsa (FoA), a pro-Palestine campaign group.
At a 2009 London rally, Patel insisted Hamas was “no terrorist organisation”, before declaring at another: “We are all Hamas!”
FoA has since helped to organise anti-Israel marches across Britain following the October 7 attack.
Adam meanwhile served from 2018 as the Leicester chair of Mend – a group labelled “extremist” by Michael Gove in the House of Commons over its alleged “Islamist orientation and views”.
In 2019, Adam backed the campaign of Claudia Webbe, who was elected as the Labour MP for Leicester East in that year’s general election before being expelled from the party after she was convicted of harassment.
After the start of Israel’s war against Hamas, however, he became disillusioned with Labour and resolved to stand against Ashworth in Leicester South as an independent.
A week after the general election was called, Yusuf created a video featuring Adam in which he visited a cafe with a wheelchair-bound woman to discuss disability rights.
“Eye opening as usual,” Yusuf replied on Instagram when Adam posted the clip. “Thank you for letting me be part of filming and editing this campaign.”
Two weeks later, Adam sat down with Yusuf for an interview on camera in which the pair discussed his campaign.
“Jon Ashworth has won [a] crazy majority for many years. Labour’s been in power within Leicester city for many years,” she said to him. “Is it realistic that we can overturn that majority and win the next general election?”
In another video posted to her social media during the campaign that has since been deleted, Yusuf showed viewers a leaflet that declared: “30,000 people killed. 13,000+ children killed. Jonathan Ashworth – ceasefire abstainer. Leicester deserves better!”
On its reverse, the pamphlet had a link to The Muslim Vote, a national campaign that advised people to vote for “anti-genocide” candidates such as Adam.
“So some of you that live in Leicester South must have got a leaflet posted in that looks like this, and the back is like this,” Yusuf said. “And great to see initiatives coming up in terms of who to vote for, obviously based on the current politician not really representing us.”
During the general election campaign, thousands of leaflets such as this were delivered to residents across Leicester, The Sunday Times reported.
The newspaper also revealed that local police are investigating whether electoral law was breached during the campaign.
The document praised by Yusuf did not state who funded it, or which candidate it was intended to support, which is an offence under The Representation of the People Act 1983.
A Leicester police spokesman said: “The force has received a number of reports concerning election material distributed in the run up to the General Election on July 4. All matters within the election period are dealt with expeditiously by specialist officers. Further enquiries are continuing to identify whether a criminal offence has been committed.”
Wajeeda Yusuf, who goes by "Jeeda Joseph" online, defended the October 7 attack (Photo: Instagram)[Missing Credit]
In late June, Yusuf filmed herself shouting at Ashworth about Labour’s policy on Palestine after bumping into him in the street.
"I'm very, very disappointed,” she said to the Labour candidate. “You are supposed to be our voice. Why weren't you our voice? We can't watch all these people dying any more.”
Before lending her support to Adam’s campaign, however, Yusuf made a series of incendiary posts on social media defending Hamas and suggesting Israel steals the organs of Palestinians.
Writing on Instagram on October 7, she said: “To exist is to resist. Every person has a right to resist against occupation, persecution and oppression. I stand against the oppressors and the hypocrites. Shame on those who supported Ukraine but cannot support Palestine. Shame on you!”
The next day Yusuf attacked a supposed “propaganda machine” pushing a “false narrative”, before posting the Palestinian flag emoji.
This month, she shared an extract from a Sky News story about a secure Israeli blood bank created in preparation for major terror attacks or war.
Yusuf wrote: “So when Gazan bodies are taken and returned with body parts have been remove, is this where everything is being stocked up? Disgusting [sic].”
In April, she claimed Britain had been “taken over by Zionists” who are “controlling the government,” while in June she shared a video insisting Aafia Siddiqui, a convicted murderer and al-Qaeda associate, was innocent.
Lord Walney told the JC he thought Adam had “very serious questions to answer” concerning the conduct of his supporters.
“His attitude towards the abuse Jonathan Ashworth suffered had to endure and the actions that were carried out by people who it seems may well have been supporting him,” he said.
The crossbench peer said he had suggested to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Security Minister Dan Jarvis that an inquiry be launched to discover if groups had co-ordinated threats against candidates across the country.
He added: “There can be no place in our politics for the appalling scenes of intimidation seen in Leicester South and other constituencies.
“It represents a threat to individuals by creating a permissive environment in which violent acts against candidates and MPs are more likely, but also it damages the very fabric of our democracy, which relies on the freedom of people to express different ideas and take different positions without the threat of intimidation.
