Salma Yaqoob

Yaqoob's parents, Mohammed and Gubzubda Yaqoob, emigrated to the UK from Pakistan in the early 1950s, and her father worked in a mill before joining the Royal Mail.

Salma Yaqoob (born 15 August 1971) is a British political activist and psychotherapist who served as the Leader of the Respect Party from 2005 until 2012, representing the party on Birmingham City Council.

She led the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and is a patron of Stop the War Coalition UK.

She unsuccessfully stood to be the Labour Party candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands in the 2021 mayoral election, finishing third out of three candidates.

She has been a spokesperson for Birmingham Central Mosque.

Yaqoob has also contributed to news outlets, including HuffPost, The Guardian and the New Statesman.

Yaqoob was born in Bradford on 15 August 1971: the family later moved to Birmingham, where she was raised.

She describes herself as having been a "tomboyish girl" who played football on the streets of Alum Rock.

Yaqoob was inspired to become politically active following the September 11 attacks, claiming to have been spat at on the streets of Birmingham in the days following.

Yaqoob runs a part-time psychotherapy practice.

She is employed as a Community Engagement Senior Manager at the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

At the 2005 general election, she stood as the Respect candidate for the Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency against Labour MP Roger Godsiff, with the backing of the Muslim Association of Britain.

She finished in second place, ahead of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates, and with 27.5% of the total vote.

Yaqoob was elected with 49.4% of the vote in the Sparkbrook ward of Birmingham City Council in the 2006 local elections.

Her first appearance was in Skegness, 19 January 2006, shortly before her election as a councillor.

She returned in Preston (October 2006), followed by her home town of Birmingham on 8 February 2007 and Bath on 12 February 2009.

On 10 December 2009, Question Time was held in Wootton Bassett, a town where the bodies of UK troops killed in Afghanistan pass through and are informally mourned.

Salma Yaqoob stated that she "would be proud to have my sons defend this country" and argued for better support for UK troops and their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

She was re-elected to the post in May 2010.

Yaqoob stood in the 2010 general election for the Respect Party in the Birmingham Hall Green constituency, and came second to Roger Godsiff of the Labour Party, trailing by 3,799 votes.

Yaqoob attained 13.9% of the vote, chiefly from the Labour incumbent – the Labour candidate lost 11.7% of the total vote, election-to-election.

The Green Party, after a members' vote, had stood down its candidate in favour of Yaqoob.

She was endorsed by then-Green Party leader Caroline Lucas and the retiring Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, Lynne Jones.

She made her sixth appearance on the show on Thursday 10 June 2010, when it was broadcast from Plymouth.

She was joined on the panel by Ben Bradshaw, Jeremy Hunt, Katie Hopkins and Toby Young.

Yaqoob has also made appearances on The Politics Show, This Week, Daily Politics, 10 O'Clock Live, and Frost Over The World.

In 2011 Yaqoob claimed to have been offered a choice of two 'safe seats' by the Labour Party, one in Birmingham and one in the Black Country, in the lead-up to the 2010 general election.

She stated she had declined the offer.

Yaqoob became the leader of the Respect Party, making her the only Muslim female leader of a Parliamentary political party in British history.

At a Birmingham City Council meeting in early February 2011, Yaqoob and another Respect Party councillor, Mohammed Ishtiaq, sat with their arms folded and refused to participate in a standing ovation at a meeting at which Britain's most highly decorated serving marine and Afghanistan veteran Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, GC, RMR was a guest.

This led to widespread criticism from other councillors, including allegations that it was a disrespectful act.

The two councillors argued they were protesting against "false patriotism" by politicians, while defending their own history of support of individual troops.

Martin Mullaney, a Liberal Democrat councillor, alleged afterwards that Yaqoob would have applauded were the 21 July failed bombers being honoured.

He later apologised for this claim.

Yaqoob has made six appearances on the panel of BBC One's Question Time programme.

On 7 July 2011, Yaqoob announced her intention to stand down as a Birmingham City councillor, citing health reasons.

On 11 September 2012, Yaqoob announced her resignation from the Respect Party after what she described as a difficult few weeks and a breakdown in relations.

Yaqoob had distanced herself from comments made by George Galloway about rape and the allegations made against Julian Assange.

In an interview with Aida Edemariam of The Guardian, Yaqoob said that she was being forced into making a "false choice" between Galloway's "anti-imperialist stances" and defending women's rights.

In April 2014, she was appointed Independent Chair of the Stakeholder Council of Birmingham South Central Clinical Commissioning Group.