Ladywood general election candidate Akhmed Yakoob is under fire over LGBT comment that “snapped”.

Ladywood general election candidate Akhmed Yakoob joked about “turning on” men venturing into women’s toilets during a video exchange on trans and LGBT issues. He also recounted how he pulled his children out of secular public schools to avoid them being exposed to positive LGBTQ messages.

In the interview, seen by Birmingham Live, Yakoob is described as “the most famous lawyer in the world right now” by The Blue Tick Show host Mikey Melin. It aired nine months ago. Yakoob, 36, a criminal defense barrister, currently sits in the Ladywood constituency as an independent and has close links to George Galloway’s GB Labor Party.

The constituency is home to thousands of LGBTQ people and allies and includes the city’s famous Gay Village. Lib Dem candidate Lee Dargue said it would be terrible for the town and the LGBT community if the next MP for Ladywood had bigoted views and a record of easily sharing “misinformation” about teaching equality in schools.

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Yakoob hopes to unseat Labour’s shadow justice minister, Shabana Mahmood, and has built a following particularly among disaffected Muslims and people who support his pro-Palestine campaign messages. Recent polls show him making inroads into Labour’s significant majority of 28,582.

In the video interview, host Melin shares her own opinion on trans people before Yakoob says, “If a man walks into the ladies room and says I’m not a man, I’m a woman… well, if my wife is there. … I challenge him. And there is no defense to that crime,” followed by laughter. Melin’s host adds, “I’d take the damn time to get me in.”

When approached by BirminghamLive today, Yakoob claimed the comment in the video was not aimed at trans women, but instead stated: “I was saying what if a big man that can clearly be seen is a man… that’s the fear ” No, non-trans men who are normal men will start taking advantage… it will give normal men who are predators the idea that they can get away with it.

In the interview, Yakoob also claims that he, and in his opinion any Muslim, cannot “promote” positive LGBTQ issues because it is forbidden in their faith – a claim that has previously been condemned by some religious leaders, academics and gay Muslims.

He also says he “hates” the LGBTQ equality messages being shared in schools. So much so, he says, that his own children have been moved from secular state schools to faith-based secondary schools. “I have no problem with this LGBTQ. I don’t promote it. I can’t promote. You can’t promote it (he tells Melin), we can’t promote it because we are Muslims. We can’t promote it because it was said, we were told, God sent a message…people should be able to do what they like, yes, but not try to impose their views and opinions on others. children. I don’t like this being taught in schools – I hate it.”

He then reveals, “Now I’ve pulled my kids out of school. Now I’m in Islamic schools because I can’t have that around me. No matter what religion you are, a young girl or young boy should not be taught about the different genders you can change your gender.” Yakoob later clarified to BirminghamLive that his children attended state primary schools but moved them to faith schools when they entered the secondary sector, one attending an Islamic school and the other a Catholic school.

He adds in the video: “If we say something bad about these (LGBTQ) guys, people go crazy, but people burn the Holy Quran – have you heard anyone say anything about it, condemn it? Nobody cares about that. This is our religious book…why do people just ignore this? And somebody says bad things about LGBTQ and the whole world goes crazy — they get so upset about it and get frustrated so easily.”

Prior to his election campaigns, Yakoob had become popular on Instagram and TikTok using his catchphrase “There’s a defense for every crime,” and his videos had amassed a large following online. He has 195,000 followers on TikTok and about five million likes. He polled nearly 70,000 votes in the recent West Midlands mayoral election.

Yakoob was called out by BirminghamLive earlier this year when a misleading video he promoted went viral, claiming a young teacher supporting a Labor candidate had used racial slurs. She hadn’t said anything remotely offensive. She was bombarded with hate mail about the video after Yakoob and others put her name and school in the public domain. He later apologized and faces an investigation by the Solicitors Regulation Authority into his conduct.

In the online video, Yakoob also praises controversial influencer Andrew Tate as a “good-hearted man” who just wants “men to be men.” The video interview was broadcast online after Tate was charged with human trafficking, rape and criminal gang enterprise offenses in Romania. Tate, his brother Tristan and others accused deny all charges.

Yakoob says he would represent Tate if given the chance. “I really like that brother, I think he’s a good, kind-hearted, hard-working brother and I’d do my best to help him…all he and those brothers did was promote hard work and say men be men, nothing wrong with that. People get offended too easily, people are soft these days.”

Yakoob said today that he does not believe he said anything offensive in the video interview. “My opinion about LGBTQ people is this. I have no problem with any community. I love all communities and everyone has the right to coexist and live in peace and harmony with each other.”

But he said he argued it was wrong to “sexualize” children at a young age. “My opinion about children being taught this (about the existence and equality of LGBT people) is correct, children should be left to grow up on their own and their innocence should be protected and they should not be taught about any sexualization.”

Challenged about existing evidence that schools are “sexualizing” children, he referred to storybooks available in some schools, saying they were confusing. Books from some local elementary schools include ones featuring a baby with two mummies, two boy penguins feeding an abandoned egg and raising baby penguins together, and a boy who likes to wear a dress. Yakoob said, “Some boys or some girls don’t have that much intellect compared to others and this information (from storybooks) could be misinterpreted by a 7- or 8-year-old boy.”

He claimed that a concerned Roman Catholic father recently approached him for help with the same problem and was “very pleased” to hear that he could move his child to another school or take them home.

Of his admiration for Tate, he said: “I don’t agree with everything Andrew Tate says – I agree with what he says about working hard to make something of yourself.” Regarding the crimes Tate faces, he said only that “I believe one is innocent until proven guilty.”

For those who want to view the record to make up their own minds, click this link

He also spoke to BirminghamLive about a second podcast interview in which he was criticized for “joking” about domestic violence against women. The comment was part of an unedited version of the Minted Mind podcast, hosted by Birmingham entrepreneur Abdhul Zaman and shared with BirminghamLive.

In it, six male voices exchange views on the role of women and whether men should do more to “keep them in their place”. At one point, Yakoob joins in the laughter and “jokes” during a discussion about women dancing on TikTok, as one of the podcasters states, “Going back to masculinity, I personally would give him a backhander. I’m not kidding.”

Yakoob “jokes” about the legal defense that might be in place in such a circumstance. The comments were widely criticized. Cllr Nicky Brennan, cabinet leader for equalities at Birmingham City Council, said: “1 in 4 women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, on average two women die a week at the hands of violent men. It’s nothing to joke about.”

Today, Yakoob said of the response: “Everyone is on a learning curve and everyone makes mistakes. We learn things everyday. I’m on a learning curve. And if I offended anyone by being on that podcast, I apologize, and if I offended anyone, it’s unintentional.”

The podcast features Yakoob saying that “70% of hell would be women.” Asked about this today, he claimed to have quoted a Muslim “hadith” which says: “Most of the inhabitants of the fire are women.” “It was a quote… it’s not something I made up, you can research it,” he claimed.

He also said he supports the podcast’s belief about gender roles. “I think at home I’m the king, I go out and get my hands dirty, I do the work, and my wife is the queen, she takes care of the kids and the household. I actually feel like, it’s true, my wife is my queen why should she go out and get her hands dirty when I can do it?

Asked if people from diverse backgrounds, women and the LGBT community could trust him to represent them, he said: “Every constituent of Ladywood is equal in my eyes and allowed to co-exist with each other. And if they have any problem, my doors are open to every constituent, whether they’re Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, black, white, Chinese, whatever community they come from, LGBT, I don’t want to cause division.”