Mothin Ali’s by-election day blunder

Oh dear. It is polling day in Holborn and St Pancras and the Greens are staring down the face of defeat. Zack Polanski has put his leadership on the line by standing here but it looks as if Andy Burnham has rallied the Labour faithful back to his cause. With Polanski suffering a summer of bad headlines and embarrassing revelations, some whisper quietly whether defenestration might now be on the cards. Rattled! The (self-identifying) man likely to replace Zack is his charming deputy Mothin Ali. As Steerpike’s colleague Noa Hoffman has noted , there is a fair bit of bad blood between allies of the Jewish leader and his Muslim number two. Ali is a backer of the ‘Global Majority Greens’ who have privately accused Polanski of instituting a ‘hierarchy of racism’, claiming allegations of anti-Semitism taken more seriously than other complaints. Some were involved in championing the ‘Zionism is racism’ motion which now has the party facing an investigation by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. Talk about a brains trust. Outwardly though, it is all smiles between Polanski and his deputy – at least until the ballots all come in tomorrow. In his bid to show his fealty, Ali has been retweeting Greens out campaigning for Polanski. Unfortunately, one of those he has shared to his 19,000 followers is a fairly obvious parody account called ‘Libby Tarde’ who claims to have travelled all the way from Bristol for the ‘bi erection’. Clearly, like his leader, Ali has trouble distinguishing fact from fiction… If this is the best the Greens have got then Mr S suggests maybe the eco-warriors and Gaza nutters ought to stick with Fantasy Zack. Better a boob whisperer than a right arse, eh?