Earlier this month, Salma Yaqoob announced her retirement from Birmingham Council for reasons of ill health. In last year’s general election, standing for Respect in Birmingham Hall Green with the support of the Green Party and retiring Labour MP, Lynne Jones (against whom Labour’s executive decided to take no action), she lost to Roger Godsiff by only 3,799 votes. She is a formidable campaigner, and an articulate, compassionate and enormously effective media spokesperson for progressive causes. She would be an enormous asset to the Labour Party, and we hope that she recovers her health, returns to active politics and will, one day soon, be welcomed into the Labour Party where people with her politics belong.
The Birmingham Post‘s appreciation of Salma Yacoob on her announcement is worth quoting in its entirety:
In a city that often worries about lacking politicians of substantial national standing, it is a great pity that one person who could justifiably claim to have been on the path to greatness is quitting public life.
For many people in Birmingham, and the country as a whole, Salma Yaqoob is the voice of moderate Islam. After campaigning against the Iraq war and then winning a council seat in 2006, Ms Yaqoob defied attempts in some quarters to paint her as a desperate extremist.
There is little doubt that, had she been prepared to swallow her principles and join the Labour Party, Ms Yaqoob would by now have been one of Birmingham’s most effective and best known MPs. Her personal struggle against racists who targeted her for being a Muslim, and against extremist Muslims who targeted her for apparently not being Islamic enough, is well known.
What has not been widely appreciated until now is the ill health with which Ms Yaqoob has struggled for some time. She has taken a brave decision to stand down from the council in order to concentrate on getting better and to be with her family. Birmingham politics will be the worse without her. We wish Salma the very best for the future.
As the Post said in its news story:
Ms Yaqoob has been called a firebrand by her opponents – who perhaps mistake her passion for what she believes in as something more sinister.
But in reality, the 39-year-old is a typical mother, leading a normal family life. Strip away the political veneer and there is a bashful young woman with a cheeky self-depreciating sense of humour waiting to get out.
She’s a role model for thousands of young Muslim women and she takes this responsibility extremely seriously.
During her time on the Council and in her campaigning, she has received harassment, death threats, “nasty phone calls” and “vile letters”, both from white racists and extreme Islamist groups such as Al Ghurabaa. She has campaigned on vital issues of national and international importance — the Iraq War, public spending cuts, racism and fascism, Palestinian rights. She has led her political party, Respect. And she has also received warm support from all sections of her community – evident in the Post’s coverage. In her own words:
Ninety-five per cent of my time is just doing normal things and campaigning from door to door. We campaigned for the Christmas lights in my area and we go to the OAP homes with people from all faiths and go carol singing. It’s about reaching out to people – whatever their faith, political beliefs, race or colour.
I am proud of the things that I have done. I am proud to lead a party but it’s the day-to-day things which I really enjoy and that is why it will be such a wrench to step down.
One of my final tasks will be to hand over a cheque after I pledged to raise money on behalf of the Made In Birmingham Society for a war memorial for the factory workers who died in the city during the Second World War.
I am a proud Brummie first and foremost and that will never change.”
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