Death threats to Green deputy leader investigated

Police are investigating death threats against Green Party deputy leader Mothin Ali, following claims he attended a rally in support of the Iranian regime.

Ali, who is also a councillor in Leeds, told the BBC he attended an event which he said was organised by the Stop the War Coalition, an organisation he considered to be "reputable", to protest against the US-Israel attacks.

Wetherby and Easingwold Conservative MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke used parliamentary privilege to claim Ali was "protesting in support" of Iran's leadership.

Ali denied supporting the regime and said he had also received a number of death threats on social media. West Yorkshire Police said they were investigating the threats.

A spokesperson said the force had "received a report of threatening messages received on social media and are conducting inquiries into the matter".

On 28 February, the US and Israel attacked Iran, targeting the country's missile infrastructure, military sites and leadership in the capital, Tehran, as well as strikes across the country.

The country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had led the country since 1989, was killed during the first wave of strikes.

The rally coincided with the first wave of strikes - but before the leader's death.

Ali, who represents Gipton and Harehills for the Green Party, said he received a text hours after the initial attacks, in which he said he was asked if he could "come to this emergency rally against the illegal attacks by Israel on Iran".

"It was an anti-war demonstration," he said.

"It was organised by Stop the War Coalition, CND [the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament] and a bunch of other organisations. I don't know the names of exactly who, but there was a list.

"Stop the War is the umbrella for all of these anti-war demonstrations. So they're very reputable."

Ali said that while he was there, there was nothing to suggest it was a protest in support of the ayatollah, as has since been claimed, and that there were "CND signs, there were masses of stop the war signs, masses of anti-Trump signs".

"There was 1,000 people-plus and that was the majority of it," he said.

"There was a few Iranian flags, maybe a handful. But as far as I could see from those, the vast majority of the stuff out there was CND."

Ali said when he got on to his train back to Leeds the next day, he looked at social media platform X and saw "hundreds and hundreds of messages really, really targeted, really quite hateful, quite vitriolic, the way they were framing it they were taking it as to something that it wasn't".

Sir Alec spoke about the event in the House of Commons, where he said: "I was appalled but, I'm afraid, not shocked – I'm sure the prime minister was as well – to see, once again, the deputy leader of the Green Party at the weekend, protesting in support of the ayatollah.

"I am afraid that the Green Party has become a magnet for all the people who the prime minister quite rightly kicked out of the Labour party."

In response, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, whose party came third in the recent Gorton and Denton by-election won by Green candidate Hannah Spencer, said: "I think we were all shocked by the actions of the deputy leader of the Green Party - although perhaps not surprised, given that party's recent turn of direction".

After the exchange, Ali said he had received more than 20 death threats that he had reported to the police, including "images of me burning in hell, things like that posted online".

But he said the only regret he felt for attending the rally was from a "personal view," because of the impact it had on his family and the "reputational damage" it has caused.

However, he said he believed attending the rally was the "right thing to do".

It is not the first time Ali has faced criticism.

The Green Party leader, Zack Polanski, was last year urged to sack Ali after his criticism of a Leeds-based Rabbi and Israeli Defence Force (IDF) reservist.

Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch had accused Ali of playing a key role in the wave of threats that drove him from his home.

The Times reported that Rabbi Deutsch had been working as a student chaplain at Leeds University at the time of the 7 October attacks in 2023.

An Israeli citizen, he was called up as a reservist for a tour of duty with the IDF. Rabbi Deutsch reportedly acted as a guard for food and ammunition convoys entering Gaza during his service.

Ali said he now accepted that "words have consequences" but said he had been an activist at the time.

"I was an activist and he was an IDF soldier who had gone and participated in the genocide and while he was over there, he was sending videos encouraging others to do the same and then he came back to a position of trust and a position of influence over young minds," Ali said.

"Those students had started a protest and started a sit-in way before I said anything. But the wording that I used was clumsy and I shouldn't have used those".

Ali claimed there was a desire in some sections of the media to question his motives as a "proud visible Muslim".

He highlighted the Harehills riots in 2024, when, as a local councillor, he took to the streets to try and calm tensions.

But he said pictures taken of him were posted online and "people were accusing me of being one of the rioters".

He said this showed "how easily things can be taken and spun the wrong way".

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