[13] At the 2005 general election, she stood as the Respect candidate for the Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency against Labour MP Roger Godsiff, with the backing of the Muslim Association of Britain.

[20] She was endorsed by then-Green Party leader Caroline Lucas and the retiring Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, Lynne Jones.

[21][22] In 2011 Yaqoob claimed to have been offered a choice of two 'safe seats' by the Labour Party, one in Birmingham and one in the Black Country, in the lead-up to the 2010 general election.

At a Birmingham City Council meeting in early February 2011, Yaqoob and another Respect Party councillor, Mohammed Ishtiaq, sat with their arms folded and refused to participate in a standing ovation at a meeting at which Britain's most highly decorated serving marine and Afghanistan veteran Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher, GC, RMR was a guest.

[30] On 10 December 2009, Question Time was held in Wootton Bassett, a town where the bodies of UK troops killed in Afghanistan pass through and are informally mourned.

[31] Salma Yaqoob stated that she "would be proud to have my sons defend this country" and argued for better support for UK troops and their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

[43][41] In an interview with Aida Edemariam of The Guardian, Yaqoob said that she was being forced into making a "false choice" between Galloway's "anti-imperialist stances" and defending women's rights.

[47] In 2014 episode of Question Time which went viral online, Yaqoob called the then-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith "patronising" for his views on poverty.

She also said that Duncan Smith "labels poor people as scroungers when [he] claim[s] £39 for a breakfast" and "live[s] on [his] wife's estate and [has] taken a million pounds of taxpayers' money, that's what I call scrounging".

[53] Responding to the complaint, Yaqoob stated that "at no point in the leaflet do I make the claim of an endorsement from Jeremy Corbyn or the Labour Party."

"[53] In response, Yaqoob claimed that the statements made by Labour constituted "malicious accusations" and said that Shah was playing a "petty political game".

[54] Yaqoob's application was criticised in a leaked email written by Labour MP Naz Shah published in October 2019.

I am saddened that she is lobbying nationally to limit the right of local Labour members to make their own choice by seeking to remove me from even a potential shortlist."

[58][59] In August 2009, Birmingham man Stuart Collins appeared in court charged with threatening to kill Yaqoob and with racially and religiously aggravated harassment.

[67][68][10][69] In 2006, Yaqoob received the Lloyds TSB Asian Jewel Award for Public Service Excellence, while Harper's Bazaar magazine named her in the top thirty list of British women, alongside Kate Winslet, all of whom they considered to be 'women shaping Britain'.

[73] In 2009, Yaqoob was included in the Muslim Women Power List run by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in association with The Times and Emel magazine.