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Green campaign chief boasts mosques backed Greens 'undercover' to dodge charity law 'at Gorton & Denton'

From the Newshound archive · first published 7 October 2026 · last updated 8 October 2026.

Hannah Spencer pictured at a mosque, as a report alleges organised coordination between mosque networks and the Greens involved deliberate concealment from charity regulators.
Hannah Spencer pictured at a mosque, as a report alleges organised coordination between mosque networks and the Greens involved deliberate concealment from charity regulators.

Green Party campaigns coordinator Asma Alam told a fringe conference panel that mosques endorsed Green candidates covertly to evade rules barring charities from backing political parties. Alam, who ran Hannah Spencer's successful Gorton & Denton by-election campaign in February, named Quba Mosque in Manchester as one that announced support for the Greens after growing 'disappointed by Labour' — then said 'I shouldn't have mentioned the name.' The National Secular Society, which heard the remarks firsthand, has referred both the matter and Quba Mosque to the Electoral Commission and the Charity Commission.

Alam said she drew up a list of 14 mosques to 'get on board' during the Gorton & Denton campaign — and 'got all covered.'

The Gorton & Denton contest was already under scrutiny after observers recorded the highest levels of family voting in a decade of UK election monitoring, with arrests following two months after polling day.

Political analyst Matt Goodwin says the revelations confirm what he told the BBC on results night in one word: 'sectarianism.'

Morex.comI knew Gorton & Denton was rigged. Hannah Spencer’s campaign manager today being revealed in The Times to have… — @GoodwinMJ on Xsecularism.org.ukGreen official: Mosques backed by-election candidates “undercover”The TimesMosques ‘secretly endorsed Greens in breach of rules’
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