Ali Milani (Persian: علی میلانی; born July 1994)[1] is a British author, political commentator, and Labour Party politician.
In 2019, he unsuccessfully stood as the party's candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, a seat which was held by the then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Milani became a local councillor in Hillingdon in 2018, and was chosen in September as the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
[7][8] The family received state benefits and were impacted by the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government scrapping the Education Maintenance Allowance scheme in England in 2011.
[1] Milani's father, Hassan, was diagnosed with COVID-19 whilst overseas in Iran, and died in the early morning of 21 March 2020.
Milani commented that "we expressed our concerns that she has no academic credibility and contributes nothing to the debate", saying that "our students find [some of her views] offensive".
[17] Following the event, Milani wrote a blog article for The Huffington Post entitled "Our Students Were Right to Walk Out – Brunel Is Better Than Katie Hopkins".
[18] Whilst president, Milani gave a statement opposing the UK government's Prevent, a counter-terrorism strategy.
Milani opined that the strategy is "about grabbing one community and providing disproportionate amounts of suspicion and spying on", citing students' unions that were forced to hand over lists of Islamic society membership to police.
[24] In September 2018, Ali Milani was selected as the Labour Party's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
[7] Also shortlisted were NHS doctor Sonia Adesara, local party chair Jessica Beishon, trade union organiser Steve Garelick and David Williams.
[4] Whilst campaigning, Milani discussed areas where he said that Johnson has failed, including the planned expansion of Heathrow Airport and Hillingdon Hospital, where children were moved out of the paediatrics department after it was ruled unsafe for use.
[26] On 27 November 2019, it was reported by The Independent that Milani's odds of winning the seat had increased from 16.7% to 22.2%, making it one of the "five biggest moves" in constituency polling according to bookmaker Paddy Power.
[29] In April 2017, The Independent and The Jewish Chronicle reported on alleged antisemitism among candidates for NUS positions, including several social media posts made by Milani.
He told The Jewish Chronicle that "I made it clear that BDS was a peaceful method for people in the UK to advance an end to human rights violations."
He also advocated "pushing for education on this issue – specifically in schools and colleges like mine" and discussed visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp.