She revealed that a Labour candidate was told she was not a real Muslim because she had a Western first name.
Heather Iqbal was heavily defeated in Dewsbury and Batley by Iqbal Mohamed, after a campaign she said was characterised by "intimidation".
Ms Iqbal said Mr Mohamed's supporters chased her down the street shouting that she was a "child murderer" and an "agent of genocide", while a loudspeaker van blared the message that Labour was a Zionist party.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mrs Iqbal said she was no longer allowed to take her son with her when she went door to door because of the intense nature of the campaign.
She said Muslim Labour members in Dewsbury were under great pressure to leave the party over its stance on Gaza, and their children were being bullied at school because their parents were Labour.
Her testimony offers a disturbing insight into the kind of sectarian politics that appears to be on the rise in parts of the UK following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
The news came as Labour gathered for its annual conference, with delegates having to pass a large and vocal group of pro-Palestinian activists to enter the venue on Sunday.
'Criticism of my name'
Ms Iqbal said: "There was constant questioning as to whether I was Muslim or not, and constant criticism about my first name, including at public community meetings held by the independent MP.
"Activists and some of my family members were chased through the streets. During election week, I had a van following me and several activists.
"We gathered to knock on the door, 15 minutes later the van showed up and shouted 'genocide agent, child murderer'. Who can vote calmly when that's happening behind you on the street?
"It's really annoying and it means you can't democratically determine your position because wherever you are, you feel like someone will aggressively protest against you.
"It felt like you had to look over your shoulder every day, because the language was determined from above."
At the beginning of the campaign, she took her baby son outside to knock. "But I was called names for being a child murderer," she said. "That was just on a door, but that's the point of the language seeping in.
"I was outvoted and I felt like I couldn't really put the baby forward during the campaign. That's not a situation you would put yourself and a child in."
Ms Iqbal said Mr Mohamed - who sits in the Commons in a new independent alliance with Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader of the far-left Labour Party - had never called on his activists to moderate their behaviour.
"If the independent MP is confident in his positions, he shouldn't have to use his campaign to do this sort of thing," she said. "I was the only woman running and I just thought it was totally insensitive of the independent MP not to make an issue of it. [to his supporters]."
She added: "We were speaking to the police pretty much every day because of what happened during the local elections, when there were 40 or 50 men outside the main polling stations shouting at people. The week leading up to the general election I felt really, really intimidated."
Large Muslim community
Dewsbury, a textile town in West Yorkshire with a proud history of pioneering radicalism, has had a Labour MP for most of the last century. In the last boundary review it was merged with Batley, another Labour stronghold.
But in the 2021 Batley and Spen by-election, George Galloway nearly won the seat from Labour's Kim Leadbeater, targeting Muslim sentiments about the Middle East in a sign of trouble to come.
Since the 1960s, Dewsbury has had a large Muslim community concentrated in the districts of Savile Town, Thornhill Lees and Ravensthorpe. Batley has a similarly large Muslim population.
Pro-Gaza candidate Mohamed received 15,641 votes in the 2024 general election, compared to 8,707 for Labour.
Ms Iqbal said there were some Labour members who felt "silenced".
"They felt that they had to leave the party in a public way because their children were being bullied at school, or they were being abused when they went to the mosque," she said. "And I think that is a very sad situation.
"Since the election I have seen a number of posts on social media saying that every Labour supporter should be marginalised and excluded; that they were traitors and hypocrites. They should not be allowed to hold positions in charities or mosques.
"I would like to see Iqbal Mohamed publicly condemn and actively challenge these kinds of social media posts and give people a sense that there can be a diversity of political views and opposition, as in any healthy democracy."
Ms Iqbal's election agent, Jackie Ramsay, said the campaign team had been significantly thinned out because Labour members felt "bullied" into leaving. "When people go to the mosque, people in the community say to them, 'Why are you still in this genocidal party?'" she recalled.
Police involvement
Ms Ramsay said she had reported independent supporters to the police on three occasions. On one occasion, when a small group was canvassing in a Muslim area of Batley, an independent supporter ran up to us and "shouted very aggressively at us that we were not welcome in that area".
"He collected leaflets at some of the doors we had been sent to. He said it was an independent area; if we didn't get out, he would call people so they would remove us.
"We were the genocidal party, we were responsible for the deaths of women and children. We supported the murder of babies, we were Zionists." The police were called, but did not come.
Elsewhere in Batley, she said, Mrs Iqbal campaigned with members of her family and some other Muslim activists who had remained with Labour.
"There was a man who told them they are not good Muslims," Ms Ramsay said. "If they are Muslims, they need to rethink their faith because of the genocide.
"It's a good mantra. The canvassers were very angry, of course, because they are Muslim and they were being attacked around their faith.
"You don't mind arguing with people at the door, but when it's shouted throughout the street, you do mind."
Later, in the Ravensthorpe area of Dewsbury, Labour activists handing out leaflets were followed by a car "with a tape saying very loudly that you would not vote Labour, driving along with us".
"A few days later, a big white van started following us with Iqbal Mohamed posters on both sides. This is three days before election day," she said.
"It felt like everywhere we went the van was following us, saying that Labour is the genocidal party, that we are the independents, that you don't want to vote Labour because they support the murder of women and children.
"One night in Ravensthorpe there were three teams and they did a round of each of the teams. Heather was on one of the teams and they told her that they were going to tell people at the polling stations not to vote for you because you supported genocide."
Local elections also influenced
Ms Ramsay stood as a councillor in the local elections in May but lost to an independent in Dewsbury South, which includes the largely Muslim Savile Town and predominantly white Thornhill.
A few months earlier, she said, council members had been interviewed by leaders of local mosques about their views on the Middle East conflict.
But it soon became clear that nothing they could say would undo the fallout from a disastrous interview Sir Keir Starmer gave to LBC, in which he said Israel had the right to deprive Gaza of power and water.
"The expectation was really that we would resign from the Labour Party and then they could support us as councillors," Ms Ramsay said. "I obviously didn't resign. During the local election campaign it was quite clear that things were going against us.
"Labour Party members started leaving. There was intimidation. People who were of the Islamic faith were expected to leave the 'genocide party' or the 'party that supports the killing of babies'."
Ms Ramsay added: "Election day was very difficult for us in local elections. Lots of people with large independent rosettes were outside the polling stations.
"I've seen it at Thornhill Lees and Savile Town, where people were told which box to vote for. You had to go through a bit of an obstacle course [to get in]."
Ms Iqbal said: "I think there is a group of people who are taking advantage of the emotions that Gaza brings.
"They don't just intimidate people into feeling like they can't vote Labour because of their religion. That emotion overrides how you feel about your local services or public policy more generally.
"The independents have tapped into something that people are really raw about. I don't think that means that all Muslims think the same or vote the same."
Mr Mohamed was asked for comment.
