A Birmingham-based political organiser behind the city’s independent candidates movement has been caught on film repeating claims that “Zionists control everything” while speaking with local voters.
Akhmed Yakoob, a lawyer and former political candidate with a large online following, was arrested at a demonstration last week on suspicion of racially abusing a police officer – an allegation he denies, describing his arrest as “unlawful.” He is now campaigning to help independent candidates win seats in Birmingham’s local elections in May.
In a Sky News segment released today, Yakoob is heard telling potential voters: “The thing is, the Zionists control everything. That’s what happens, they try to silence us.”
Reporter Alexandra Rogers said: “To us, Yakoob is keen to stress that it was the cost of living that is the core of his campaign, but there’s another message he is also telling residents.
“Whilst he was speaking to voters, and our cameras were still rolling, we heard him repeating conspiracy theories widely acknowledged to be antisemitic.”
When confronted by journalists after the comment was recorded, the broadcaster said Yakoob stood by his comments, that he did not think it was antisemitic and it was something he said regularly.
Yakoob has repeatedly drawn criticism for statements about Zionism and Israel. In a video posted in February, he said: “Zionism has a goal to divide people of all faiths, be it Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, all faiths, to divide people of all faiths, to run their narratives everywhere and eventually rule everything.”
In a speech from 2024, he claimed that “Allah” put him in a position “to challenge the Zionist regime, challenge the elites of this country and the world… We live in a world that slowly is getting controlled by these elites.”
He has consistently rejected allegations that he or his comments are antisemitic. In the video from earlier this year he said: “I can’t be antisemitic because I am a Muslim. Our forefathers are the same, which is the Prophet Abraham. Peace be upon him. So, we can never be antisemitic as Muslims. Remember that.”
Once a pro-Gaza independent candidate himself, Yakoob came in third in the 2024 elections to be mayor of the West Midlands and, at the general election, reduced now-Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s majority in her Birmingham Ladywood constituency from 28,582 in 2019 to 3,421.
