Conservative MP Marco Longhi has confronted backlash from the opposition after he wrote a public letter urging the British Pakistani group in Dudley North to vote for him within the UK election, highlighting how he all the time condemned “unlawful actions of India in Kashmir”.
The UK will go to the polls on July 4, the place the Conservative Celebration led by Rishi Sunak faces a litmus take a look at.
In his letter on the event of Eid al-Adha, Longhi careworn that he has been on the forefront of speeches towards the Indian authorities’s “atrocities” in the direction of the individuals of Kashmir and requested: “Who will converse on behalf of Kashmir in Parliament? “.
India has remained agency in its stance that Jammu and Kashmir, together with Ladakh, are integral and inalienable components of India.
“We now have just lately seen (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s BJP get re-elected in India. This implies there will likely be much more troublesome instances for the individuals of Kashmir within the coming months,” the letter stated.
“Narendra Modi just lately made it clear that he goals for full statehood for Kashmir, which might imply full elimination of any sovereign rights of Kashmiris and their particular standing,” he added.
Longhi appealed to voters to elect him over the Labor Celebration candidate and promised to boost Kashmir’s voice even additional in Parliament.
Labor’s Rajesh Agrawal attacked the Conservative Celebration chief, calling the letter a “disgraceful try to divide communities” that was offensive to each the Muslim and Hindu communities.
“There needs to be zero tolerance for the dog-whistling politics that Longhi is concerned in,” stated Agrawal, the Labor parliamentary candidate in Leicester East.
“Rishi Sunak ought to put nation earlier than celebration and instantly withdraw his celebration’s assist for Longhi’s marketing campaign and apologize for attempting to alienate British Indians,” he tweeted.
