Uxbridge and South Ruislip’s new Labour candidate called on critics to accept his apology for anti-semitic remarks and to take the fight to Boris Johnson.
Heathrow Villages councillor and National Union of Students vice-president Ali Milani, 24, was selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate by Labour members.
A long-time Uxbridge resident, Mr Milani vowed to fight for the community, and said his Conservative opponent was only using the constituency as a stepping stone to Number 10.
Mr Milani apologised for remarks made in 2012, when he tweeted: “Nah you won’t mate. It’ll cost u a pound #jew.”
“It was an appalling thing for me to have said,” he admitted.
“I said it when I was a teenager and I’m ashamed and embarrassed.”
Mr Milani was reported to Labour’s compliance unit by campaign group Labour Against Antisemitism earlier this year but the case was recently dismissed.
Labour Against Antisemitism spokesperson Euan Philipps said he had seen no evidence of contrition, saying: “It is outrageous that a person such as Mr Milani could be selected to stand as Labour parliamentary candidate when his appalling behaviour is on public record.”
Mr Milani said he would be happy to apologise to Mr Philipps personally, and argued that he had done everything he could to make up for his past mistakes.
He added: “I genuinely don’t believe that a mistake someone makes when they’re a teenager should eliminate them from public life.”
Mr Milani has since reached out to Jewish groups in his student politics role and has also used his position to call for increased anti-racism education in colleges and schools.
He said: “The problem was in the area that I grew up, in the schools that I went to, that kind of language was unfortunately common place.
“That’s not an excuse. But we used words that we didn’t understand the social context to, the historical context to.
“We need to educate young people to understand the context of the words they have used.”
Mr Milani did not believe his selection devalued Labour’s repeated promises to fight anti-semitic behaviour.
“It’s a good time for us to select someone who is not perfect, who has made mistakes,” he said.
“It is those mistakes that are going to drive my fight against racism, islamophobia, and antisemitism. It’s a time to challenge Boris on that.”
Mr Milani is facing an uphill challenge to turn Uxbridge and South Ruislip red for the first time since the seat’s creation in 1970.
But he believes Mr Johnson’s approach to Heathrow expansion will be key in the seat, which saw the Conservative majority halved to just 5,034 in the 2017 general election.
In a meeting in 2015 Mr Johnson vowed that he would lay down in front of the bulldozers himself if he had to, but missed a key parliamentary vote earlier this year.
“When Boris let us down on Heathrow, it was my residents that he was hurting, and we had to pick up the fight,” added Mr Milani.
“We were in court fighting Heathrow in the Royal Court of Justice. He was nowhere to be found.
“We’re just a step on his road to premiership, in his mind. I’ve had emails from local people saying they’re trying to get in touch with Boris but can’t get through to him.
“If you dropped him off in Cowley, he probably wouldn’t be able to find his way to Uxbridge station.”
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