The victories of five pro-Gaza independent candidates constituted some of the biggest upsets of July’s general election. Most newsworthy was the triumph of Shockat Adam, who unseated Labour frontbencher Jonathan Ashworth in Leicester South by overturning a majority of over 22,000. Adam’s campaign was marred by allegations that his supporters had deliberately intimidated Ashworth; while he denied this at the time, new accusations have been made against him in a report from PoliticsJOE.

A second candidate, fellow independent Osman Admani, has claimed that Adam’s supporters harassed and verbally abused him, gathering outside his home and accusing him of splitting the Muslim and pro-Gaza vote. When PoliticsJOE put the allegations to Adam, he responded that “everybody has a right to stand up and be counted” and that pro-Palestine voters didn’t want a “three- or four-horse race”. In another interview published today, this time with Middle East Eye, Adam claimed that he had himself received persistent verbal abuse, along with his family. Who’d want to be an MP?