Labour infighting, Pakistani clan politics, a candidate with the campaign’s most inspiring backstory – oh, and George Galloway, too. Welcome to the intriguing world of Bradford West.
Tim Green / Via Flickr: atoach
BRADFORD — Naz Shah has had a pretty crazy week. Since writing a personal essay about her harrowing life experiences and how she overcame them, the recently selected Labour candidate for Bradford West has been inundated by interview requests. "We had camera crews here the other day," Shah tells BuzzFeed News in her home, just outside of Bradford city centre. "It was quite surreal."
Shah's backstory is far from standard for a prospective parliamentary candidate. During her childhood, Shah, her mother, and her siblings moved more than 14 times in two years, living out of bin bags and staying in slum accommodation.
Her mother, Zoora, was later subjected to physical and sexual abuse by her partner, a gangster and drug dealer whom she eventually killed, after failed attempts to take her own life. Subsequently, she received a 20-year prison sentence, in which during that time, her 12-year-old daughter Naz was sent to Pakistan for safety, only to be forced into an abusive marriage when she was 15. Zoora was eventually released from prison in 2000, after Naz's years of campaigning with the activist group Southall Black Sisters.
Hussein Kesvani / BuzzFeed News
"So rather than have everyone else write about it, I thought if I own it, then at least I'll have control over it."
But it's not only Shah's backstory that has made her the centre of attention. She's also standing in what is very probably the most controversial election race in British politics.
Bradford West was once a Labour stronghold; when the sitting MP Marsha Singh died in 2012, the party's candidate, Imran Hussain, was expected to win the by-election easily. Instead, it was captured by the larger-than-life figure of George Galloway, leader of the left-wing Respect Party, with one of the biggest swings in British electoral history.
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