ANTI-RACIST campaigner Salma Yaqoob is being subjected to a “smear campaign,” the Stop the War Coalition said today after calls were made for her suspension from the Labour Party. 

Ms Yaqoob, who ran for the job of West Midlands metro mayor last year, is a patron of Stop the War and the founder of its Birmingham group. 

At the weekend the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) demanded that she be suspended from the party for her participation in an upcoming event. 

The online event on May 12, hosted by Birmingham Stop the War, will feature Tony Greenstein, a Jewish former Labour member who was expelled from the party over allegations of anti-semitism. 

The CAA is demanding that Ms Yaqoob be kicked out of the party for sharing a platform with Mr Greenstein. 

But Stop the War claims that Ms Yaqoob was not due to address this meeting. The campaign group also stressed that the calls for her suspension are an attempt to “silence” the anti-war and pro-Palestinian campaigning that Ms Yaqoob plays an important role in. 

It follows similar calls made by the CAA last week for the suspension of Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Bell Ribeiro-Addy for speaking on a Zoom call where suspended party members were in the audience. 

“Black women in public life like Diane, Bell and Salma receive far more online and in-person abuse and threats than any other section of the population, and it is deeply irresponsible of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism to be adding fuel to this fire,” Stop the War said in a statement. 

“Whether or not it is a conscious strategy, this targeting of black women must stop — the evil of anti-semitism cannot be fought by pandering to other equally disgusting prejudices.”