The Birmingham Labour MP who is spending more time campaigning for an airport in Pakistan than his residents’ bin crisis is being slammed after made a bizarre unfounded claim about his opponents. Tahir Ali raised the cause at Prime Minister’s Questions in March, backing the campaign to build a new airport in Mirpur, Kashmir, on the grounds it would help his Pakistani constituents.
He rallied: “I will continue to push for this cause, and pursue this issue until permission is granted for a new airport.” At the weekend Mr Ali joined others for the ‘Mirpur Airport Demand Grand Conference’ in Birmingham, where he claimed that critics of his efforts are being controlled by India. In a translated clip of the meeting, Mr Ali was heard saying: “If you look behind this [opposition], it is the Indian media agencies who don’t want this airport built.”
“They are doing interviews with members of parliament like Bob Blackman, and leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch, and Robert Jenrick who was in the leadership contest with her.
“They’re not the ones speaking, but it’s the Indian lobby behind them.”
He added: “I’m not bothered if people vote Reform or whether the Conservatives support us or not. As long as the Kashmiris are with me I have no concerns.”
Hitting back, Mr Jenrick demanded to know whether Keir Starmer condones Mr Ali’s aspersions on his motives.
The top Tory blasted: “This Labour MP accuses Conservative MPs of being controlled by the ‘Indian lobby’ for telling him to focus on Birmingham, no Pakistan.”
“He cannot fathom a politician putting Britain’s interests first. So he projects his sectarian tribalism onto us.”
He asked: “Does Starmer condone this?”
The shadow Justice Secretary has previously condemned Mr Ali’s focus on the airport halfway across the world, pointing out: “You’re an MP for Birmingham, not Mirpur.”
“The streets of your city are literally piled high in rubbish thanks to your Labour council. Focus on the UK.”
Mr Ali has insisted he is not requesting that British taxpayers’ cash be spent on the project, but asking for the UK government to lobby Pakistan to get on with building it.
In a statement following his PMQs intervention, Mr Ali said: “A few Members of Parliament have been deliberately peddling a false and misleading narrative, purposefully setting out to fuel hatred towards me and the other Parliamentarians.”
“It would appear that many of the people peddling that narrative didn’t even bother to read the letter, which was addressed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
“The idea we were encouraging the British Government to fund the airport is completely unfounded, and frankly ridiculous.”
The weekend rally on Mirpur made other headlines this weekend, when a pro-Gaza independent MP also in attendance branded outrage over grooming gangs a “false right-wing narrative.”
