21st-century Britain is a multi-cultural tapestry woven by its diverse communities. And yet, within employment, education to the criminal justice system, discrimination towards minorities, especially Muslims, has never been more apparent. Recently, the British Conservative government has sat and watched while Israel’s IDF carried out 6,000 airstrikes across Gaza, injuring over 63,000 civilians and killing over 25,000. The Labour Party has done very little to help the situation.
With the upcoming elections looming, MPs are desperate to hold onto their constituencies. And yet, British politics, and more importantly, the politicians who claim to represent their electorate, are at a standstill. The weakness of the modern politico, who, for the most part, has only ever worked in politics, has never been clearer: they all seem way out of touch with the constituents they are meant to serve.
The situation in London’s east end constituency of Bethnal Green & Stepney is a vivid example; an area of London with a large Bangladeshi community, currently represented by MP Rushanara Ali, a career politician whose first job was working as an assistant to MP Oona King, who was famously booted out of parliament by George Galloway in 2008. Recently, Rushanara, driven by Labour Party policy, refused to support a ceasefire in Gaza during a vote in Parliament last year, which was explicitly against the wishes of the vast majority of the constituency she represents.
All was lost, or so it seemed, until lawyer Tasnime Akunjee announced his intention to run against Rushanara as an independent, in the Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency at the next UK general election.
Akunjee, 46, British born to Bangladeshi parents, has spent the last 24 years working in the legal profession. Celebrated by The Times Newspaper for his work on Shamima Begum, Akunjee promises to represent the views of his local constituents, irrespective of the blowback that might come his way; a dangerous prospect for his political opponents. A career politician, he is not.
Akunjee's history shows he is no stranger to controversy when it comes to representing the underrepresented. In 2018, Akunjee defended a fifteen-year-old Syrian refugee Jamal Hijazi who had undergone a racist attack at his school playground, an incident that was further inflamed by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who incorrectly claimed the boy had previously attacked two schoolgirls. Akunjee successfully sued Robinson for libel, leading to Robinson filing for bankruptcy.
Outside of the courtroom, Akunjee has shown he is willing to put his life on the line for what he believes. Traveling to Syria in 2019, Akunjee visited the al-Roj refugee camp, against the wishes of conservative MP Sajid Javid, the then UK cabinet home secretary, to get Shamima Begum’s signature on paperwork necessary to begin the appeal process against the government’s decision to strip her UK citizenship. It was a trip that informed Akunjee’s views on the plight of those forced to live in refugee camps around the world.
In 2022, Akunjee represented a man who became a murder suspect after heroically preventing a knife attack by driving his vehicle into a knifeman. During an interview with LBC regarding the incident, Akunjee stated:
“Abraham would do it all again 'if it was something he had to do to save somebody'”
Akunjee's also organised a letter writing campaign to International Court of Justice (ICJ) judges just before the historic South Africa vs Israel genocide case hearings, imploring the judges not to be influenced by behind the scenes Israeli pressure, and to remain impartial. His viral tweet gained 2.2 million views, inspired 20,000 emails to be sent and is rumoured to have crashed the ICJ servers. The resulting ICJ judgements proved that the court retained its impartial independence from state influence and interference.
The upcoming elections highlight the stagnant state of British politics, characterized by Labour and Conservative politicians like, more concerned with self-preservation than genuine representation. In the midst of this, the Bethnal Green and Stepney constituency stands as a microcosm of these challenges, with MP Rushanara Ali's alignment with party policies. However, the entry of Tasnime Akunjee into the political arena as an independent offers a glimmer of hope. Akunjee represents a departure from the typical career politician, promising to champion the concerns of his potential constituents fearlessly.
Akunjee’s example will inspire many other individuals up and down the country, to also stand as independent candidates against a Labour party, whom many of their previous voters thought did not now represent their most important voting issues.