Councillor Shaban Mohammed’s Cheerleaders
Behind Cllr Shaban’s bid to replace Fiaz are two women, one a councillor and one a wannabe councillor. Larisa Zilickaja is a relatively new councillor who has yet to make an impression. She has, we are told, been very active promoting Cllr Mohammed’s virtues as a replacement for Fiaz. Shagufta Nasreen is a local activist in the Pakistani community with dreams of climbing the slippery pole and gaining a seat on the council.
Both have been building a base of support in the expectation that the suspension of the constituency Labour Parties will be lifted.
Nasreen may be familiar to readers. In Pakistan she appears to be a supporter of a right-wing religious bigot, but it was her feelings with regard to Jews that got her into trouble with the Labour Party. Her antisemitic posts on social media got her barred from standing as a Labour candidate for council ten years ago. These posts were not, it seems, sufficient to get her membership rescinded, but were sufficient to stop her inclusion on the list of candidates. One wonders whether the fact that she remains in the party is the result of some influence from local Labour big-wigs that kept her in the party when so many others were expelled.
Insiders tell us that she is effectively building a party-within-a-party (largely of Pakistanis) by building a women’s network outside of any party structure. There are occasions when her presence has been described as “toxic”, for instance in the aftermath of the tragedy on Napier Road, Nasreen has been noted, ‘hovering’ around and taking names and contact details of those who visited the site to express their shock and condolences. She has inserted herself as a ‘community leader’ and has taken to denigrating local Labour councillors.
Observers tell us that her twin themes are how poor the local (Labour) councillors are and how the Labour Party, (and the council) have betrayed the Palestinians. Of course, if she is elected to the council and Cllr Mohammed to the mayoralty all the problems will be solved.
You have to hand it to her, she is determined, though her apparent narcissism might turn off some potential supporters even if her antisemitism doesn’t.
