The newly elected deputy leader of the Green party and his family were attacked on a day out at the seaside last week, with bottles thrown and racist abuse hurled, he has told the Guardian.
Mothin Ali, a Leeds councillor, said the incident was a reflection of extreme rightwingers using inflammatory language to blame immigrants and refugees for social problems.
Ali, who was born in Sheffield and has lived in Yorkshire all his life, was on the beach at Cromer, Norfolk, with his mother, wife and children when a group appeared.
“It was a lovely sunny day. I’d been building sandcastles and catching shrimps in rock pools with my six-year-old. Suddenly there were these people throwing beer bottles at us, and shouting: ‘Get out of our country’ and ‘Paki bastards’. Then one of them decided to pull his trousers down.”
Ali recounted the incident as an example of how Reform UK and other rightwing activists have increasingly ramped up anti-minority rhetoric in recent months.
“Reform UK offers simple ‘solutions’ to extremely complex problems – blame immigrants, blame black and brown people, blame Muslims,” he said.
“The language is incredibly inflammatory. It’s language that is designed to stir up hate.”
Ali said that Reform UK was a “big threat” to cohesion, but the Green party under new leadership was in a strong position to offer a radical alternative.
On Tuesday, the party announced that members had overwhelmingly elected Zack Polanski as leader and Ali as joint deputy leader with Rachel Millward, the co-leader of Wealdon district council in Sussex.
The party was now led by a “gay Jewish man, a straight practising Muslim with a big beard and from a northern working-class background, and a middle-class woman who’s a feminist,” said Ali.
“Between us, we can reach across country, class, race, religion and geography. It sends a message that Britain’s a melting pot of all kinds of people. We just created a microcosm of the macro.”
He added that the Green party was “full of very decent, thoroughly nice people, but sometimes that can be a little bit of a problem. If you’re too agreeable or too nice, people can easily ignore you. I’ve always felt we’ve got to be a lot more assertive in our messaging and a lot stronger in communicating our policies and values.
“Now we have a leadership team of three people with different styles, different reaches to different communities, all coming together and uniting as one. A wide approach with a unified message.”
The key message was one of hope, he said. “I represent one of the most deprived communities in Leeds. This morning I got a call from a lady with young children who’s paying full rent on a house that is almost uninhabitable. There are people struggling to buy food for their children. Even people in well-paid jobs are having to tighten up.
“But we live in one of the richest countries in the world. No one should be struggling to eat. These are political choices.”
Politicians need to come up with creative solutions, he said. “For example, we could create solar farms on people’s rooftops right across the country. That would help with high energy bills and the climate crisis.”
Since being elected as a councillor in Leeds last May, Ali has been outspoken on the war in Gaza. On the day of his election, speaking against the backdrop of a Palestinian flag, he said “this is a win for the people of Gaza” and “Allahu Akbar”.
After a backlash, he apologised “for any upset my comments caused about the Gaza conflict” but said criticism of his use of the words “Allahu Akbar” suggested Islamophobia.
Earlier, on the day Hamas launched its attack on Israel in October 2023, Ali said on social media that Palestinians had the right to “fight back”.
Polanski, who has said he is proud to be Jewish but is “certainly not a Zionist”, told a march for Palestine in June that he stood with others “who refuse to look away from the horror and injustice unfolding before our eyes”.
The Green party leadership’s stance on Gaza may attract voters who are dismayed at Labour’s position. But, said Ali, the Greens were not “trying to win votes, but believe what we’re saying”.
“There is a genocide taking place,” he said. “We won’t know the extent of it for years, but what we see is horrible enough. The Labour party has been pathetic, but also they’ve been complicit. The UK is not just a passive observer [of the war]; we’re active participants.”
Ali said he expected the Greens to win “lots more” seats in parliament at the next election, but that he would not necessarily be among its MPs. “If there’s a need, then I’ll stand for it. If there’s someone better than me, I’ll happily step aside and sit in my garden.”
Despite the challenges, he said: “I haven’t felt this positive about politics ever. I think we can be a really powerful voice.”
