Abul Monsur

Introduction

Abul Monsur is a British local politician who was elected to Tower Hamlets Council in May 2026 to represent the Lansbury ward in Poplar, days after being suspended by the Aspire Party, the ruling group on the east London council led by Mayor Lutfur Rahman. The suspension, imposed on or about May 1, 2026, followed inquiries by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) into antisemitic posts Monsur had published on his public Facebook page during 2025, including Holocaust denial and apparent approval of Adolf Hitler. Because the deadline for withdrawing candidates had already passed, his name stayed on the ballot as an Aspire candidate, and he won election with the third-most votes in the ward.

Background Information

Monsur stood for the Aspire Party, which controls Tower Hamlets Council in east London with Lutfur Rahman as its leader and the borough’s directly elected mayor. He was selected as one of the party’s candidates for Lansbury ward, in Poplar, for the local elections scheduled for May 7, 2026, and appeared alongside Rahman and two other Aspire candidates for the ward in a photograph published with the earliest reports of his suspension. According to the party, Monsur was asked about his social media accounts during candidate vetting and later apologised for not disclosing the posts at that stage.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Documented posts, party suspension. The social media posts in this section were documented by reporters before Abul Monsur apologised; his suspension from the Aspire Party is a documented administrative action.

Throughout 2025, Monsur published a string of antisemitic posts to his public Facebook page, including material that appeared to doubt the existence of the Holocaust. On May 30, 2025, he posted an image of a “Zionist victim card” in which the word “Holocaust” was crossed out and replaced with “Holohoax”; the card asserted that “any criticism of Israel is antisemitic and accusers are supporters of terrorism” above the line “if in doubt, refer to the Holocaust”, with “Holohoax” written over the struck-through word. In a post dated May 1, 2025, he asserted that “there is NO mention of a ‘Holocaust’ in papers written after WW2 by Churchill, Eisenhower, and De Gaulle”, and referred to “Jews gaining control of the media”.

Monsur also appeared to show approval of Hitler in a post on September 23, 2025 referencing antisemitic conspiracy tropes about Jews, greed and finance. He wrote: “ADOLF HITLER OUTLAWED USURY (INTEREST – MAKING MONEY WITH MONEY)”, followed by three bullseye emojis, and added the comment “ADOLF Hitler must have agreed with Islam that Usury is bad?”. He responded with the same emojis to a comment beneath the post claiming that “the main reason the Jews conspired to kill Jesus was that he was against usury”.

In posts on September 6 and 8, 2025, Monsur asked friends to share videos of former British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin, claiming that the “neo-Nazi” party had been “destroyed” because it refused money from “Zionist lobbies”.

Other posts mirrored far-right tropes alleging Jewish control of media and politics. A post on May 1, 2025 alleged that “six Jewish billionaires own 90 per cent of the media”, while a post on October 3, 2025 claimed that “politicians and political establishments in both USA and UK are controlled by powerful Zionist lobbies”. Monsur also shared conspiracy theories suggesting that “Zionists” were responsible for the antisemitic massacre at Bondi Beach in Australia, the assassination of the American activist Charlie Kirk, and the assassination of former US president John F Kennedy, and he shared a graphic alleging that the Talmud instructs Jews to kill non-Jews.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The posts came to light when Andrew Wood, an independent candidate standing in another Tower Hamlets ward, brought Monsur’s Facebook profile to the attention of the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which contacted Monsur and Aspire for comment. Monsur said the party suspended him after that contact, telling the LDRS: “I am deeply sorry for these social media posts and ashamed of them. I apologise from the bottom of my heart to Jewish people in our community and in wider society.” He added that the posts “were unacceptable”, that he had “a lot of learning to do” and would undertake training and education, and that he was “not thinking straight and did not understand a lot of what I posted”. “I have been suspended from the Aspire Party, party’s investigation and disciplinary process [sic],” he said. “I agree with that decision and I am deeply sorry to Aspire and to all the party’s supporters.”

Aspire said it was not aware of the posts, which the LDRS described as public and prolific, when it chose Monsur as a candidate. “The party had no idea about these appalling and unacceptable posts and once informed, took immediate action,” a spokesperson said. The party added that it was “reviewing how we can improve social media checks” and regretted that the posts had not been found in due diligence checks. Because the deadline for candidate withdrawals had passed, Monsur remained on the ballot paper as an Aspire candidate, and the LDRS asked him and the party what he would do if elected.

Current Status

The Tower Hamlets elections took place on May 7, 2026, with results declared on May 9. On May 10, the Jewish Chronicle reported that Monsur, despite his suspension, had been elected to the council for Lansbury ward, receiving the third-most votes alongside two other Aspire candidates who won seats in the ward. His name had remained affiliated with the Aspire Party on the ballot paper, but the suspension left him sitting outside the party group, effectively as an independent councillor while the party’s investigation and disciplinary process stood. Aspire won 33 of the council’s 45 seats and continued to govern the borough with Monsur among its suspended members. A change.org petition called for his resignation.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The suspension overturned Monsur’s position within the party days before polling, and he took his seat for Lansbury ward without membership in good standing, subject to the disciplinary process he acknowledged in his statement. His apology committed him to “training and education”, and he conceded that he “did not understand a lot of what I posted”. The episode also prompted Aspire to promise improvements to its candidate vetting after the posts went undetected in due diligence checks. His public profile remains defined by the coverage, with the Jewish Chronicle describing him as a “Holocaust-denying councillor” elected despite his party suspension.