No, the “Islamist party” did not win the recent Bradford City Council polls in the UK

Screenshots of viral claim that ‘Islamist party’ won Bradford, UK council elections. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logic Facts)

What is the claim?

The 2024 Bradford Metropolitan District Council election took place on 2 May and 30 out of 90 council seats were up for election to select local councilors across Bradford District. The results of the local polls were announced on the same day.

Against this backdrop, a 40-second video is circulating on social media depicting a scene of celebration where men exiting a building are greeted by a crowd and one individual is applauded amid chants and slogans.

On X (formerly Twitter), the video was shared with captions such as: “Bradford Islamic Party won. Coming soon to every town and city nearby! Be afraid, you should be (sic).” Another iteration claimed: “Islamist party wins election in Bradford, UK. IT’S JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE END (sic).”

The same video was also shared with text that read: “CONGRATULATIONS TO SARFRAZ SIDIQUE LOCAL BD7 WINNER Islamist Party Wins Bradford UK Election”.

A similar post about X in Spanish has garnered over 1,37,900 views. Archived versions of posts sharing the clip can be found here and here.

On Facebook, the same video was shared (archived here) with an Islamophobic caption, claiming that “victory for the Islamist Party” would mean “dark times” for the UK.

Screenshots of viral posts. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logic Facts)

However, the person in the video is Rizwan Saleem, an independent candidate who won a seat on Bradford City Council. Furthermore, the Labor Party won the Bradford election and there is no party known as the “Islamist Party” in Britain.

What I found?

After doing a reverse image search on a keyframe in the video, we found that the same clip was posted on X (archived Here) by the account “UK Justice Forum Latest Video News Updates!” on May 5. The accompanying caption read: “Independent Rizwan Saleem was elected in the Bradford City ward in last week’s local council elections after calling out Labor over the war in Gaza.”

Source: X

Upon checking a notice titled “Notice of Poll – District Election 2 May 2024” on the Bradford Metropolitan District Council website, we were able to confirm that Saleem stood as an independent candidate in the election.

Screenshots of the official release ‘Notice of Poll – District Election 2 May 2024’ from the Bradford Metropolitan District Council website. (Source: Bradford Metropolitan District Council/Screenshot/Modified by Logic Facts)

This lines up with information provided in a video posted on Saleem’s TikTok account (archived Here), strengthening his status as an elected independent councillor.