Oxford, Bethnal Green and the Guardian: surprising British backstory of senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed
In a Guardian article in 2010, the Oxford Rhodes scholar said UK democracy had the ‘upper hand’ over the US US politics live – latest updates In the tense final hours before his dramatic election as senator for Michigan in this week’s midterms , Abdul El-Sayed had a heated encounter with a British TV journalist that rapidly went viral. As James Matthews of Sky News tried to ask him a question,…
In a 2010 Guardian article, Oxford Rhodes scholar Abdul El-Sayed claimed that UK democracy had the "upper hand" over the US. During a tense final encounter with Sky News journalist James Matthews on the eve of his Michigan Senate election, El-Sayed told Matthews, "Why would I care to have a conversation with you?" He then stated, "You know how many votes I want to get in the UK?
Zero. I am never running for office in the UK. So I actually do not care what you think or the questions you ask." The clip received over 13 million views on X.
El-Sayed's initial dismissiveness of British politics was not always the case. When he was a 25-year-old doctoral student at Oxford University, he attended a Labour party hustings in Bethnal Green and Bow, east London. This experience led him to believe that the UK's electoral system was superior, leaving him "envious" of the British way of doing things.
Upon his return to the US in 2011, El-Sayed continued to challenge political leaders, including criticizing Barack Obama's response to the Arab Spring. In his last Guardian piece, El-Sayed questioned Obama's support for Egypt's "freedom fighters" who had risen against Hosni Mubarak. Upon his election in Michigan, El-Sayed jokingly promised Donald Trump that he would be called "Senator" upon his swearing-in in January.
Written by urgent.news from The Guardian US's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
