The Green Party’s leader, Zack Polanski, has said it “doesn’t make sense” to deport Shabir Ahmed, the convicted Rochdale grooming gang leader, as internal party documents reveal plans to attack the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, over her immigration reforms.
Ahmed, 73, was convicted of multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls as young as 13. Polanski’s remarks, reported by the Daily Mail, come amid a political storm over the handling of foreign offenders.
“Zack Polanski says deporting Rochdale grooming gang leader 'doesn't make sense' as Greens target Shabana Mahmood.”
Meanwhile, an internal memo seen by the New Statesman lays out the Green Party’s strategy to target Mahmood if she is appointed as Andy Burnham’s chancellor. The party plans to accuse Mahmood of “fiscal constraint and economic orthodoxy” and to highlight her controversial immigration reforms. The memo also cites her previous comment citing Margaret Thatcher as her political heroine, and her use of the phrase “tough choices” as a code for spending cuts while she was a shadow treasury minister between October 2013 and May 2015.
A source told the New Statesman that the Greens have begun to scale up their general election preparation in light of news of Mahmood’s potential appointment. The party intends to make the case to left-wing voters that Mahmood’s economic ideas are the “polar opposite of what’s needed to balance wealth and power in this country”.
The twin developments place Polanski and the Green Party in a volatile political spotlight, defending a convicted child sex offender while plotting to undermine a senior Labour figure over her record on immigration and austerity.