George Galloway is understood to have met the family of the men involved in the Manchester Airport incident, amid fears activists are “inflaming” tensions.
The Workers Party leader visited Bilal Mosque in Rochdale on Friday to meet relatives of the two men shown in a video being kicked by a police officer during a confrontation at the airport on Tuesday.
It follows two nights of protests after the emergence of the video, which shows one of the men being kicked in the head.
Late on Friday, Mr Galloway wrote on X, formerly Twitter:
On Friday, the police watchdog announced that the police officer filmed kicking the man in the head was now under criminal investigation.
Paul Waugh, the MP for Rochdale, where the family live, earlier called for calm, warning that “extremists of all kinds are going to try and exploit this and hijack it for their own ends and that is the last thing this town needs”.
He said that the family had “no political agenda whatsoever”, would not attend the protests and had also appealed for calm.
Labour’s Mr Waugh unseated Mr Galloway at the recent election in a close-run contest dominated by anger over Gaza.
On Thursday, Mr Galloway, who has made a career out of harnessing grievances among British Asian and Muslim communities, attacked Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester Mayor, falsely claiming that he had maintained a “stony silence”.
However, Mr Burnham has repeatedly called for calm and on Thursday said no one wanted “politicians without possession of the facts exploiting the situation for their own political agenda with zero regard for the effect on the ground in communities in Greater Manchester”.
Akmed Yakoob, the lawyer representing the two men in the video, stood as an independent candidate in the recent West Midlands mayoral election on a pro-Gaza platform.
He has previously said that he believed he had been chosen by Allah to “challenge the Zionist regime”.
On Thursday, he was filmed by the BBC in Rochdale with two of Mr Galloway’s Workers Party Rochdale councillors following closely behind.
One of them, Minaam Ellahi, wrote a post on Instagram supporting the protests outside Rochdale police station, which have so far been peaceful, and stating that he had attended.
He also said: “I want to inform the community that George Galloway will be visiting Bilal Mosque on Friday and meeting with the family.”
Mr Yakoob has stressed that Mohammed Fahir Amaz and Mohammed Amahd,the two men filmed in the airport video, are not supporting the protests.
However, the presence of Mr Galloway, a notoriously divisive politician, in Rochdale at a febrile time has worried some in the community.
A Labour source in Greater Manchester said the airport incident risked being subsumed into existing local political tensions over the Middle East.
“The people running these protests and risking inflaming the situation are the same people running against the Labour Party on the Gaza issues.
“It’s Galloway’s mob who are behind it. It’s very politically charged.”
The Telegraph has approached Mr Galloway for comment.
On Thursday, it was reported that Jack Khan, a former Labour councillor who stood unsuccessfully for the Workers Party in Bolton at the general election, had warned that there would be “big protests like you have never seen before” unless the police officers involved were arrested “immediately”.
It prompted Mr Waugh to say: “I really hope that if there are any protests that they are peaceful, but, that the family’s wishes are adhered to.
“People should listen to them. They’re at the centre of this, at the end of the day, and they are the people who say ‘look, please let us just get on and pursue the independent process now’.
“That’s our focus, as well as making sure that they get the right medical help for their family member.”
Greater Manchester Police had referred the incident to the IOPC after suspending the police officer.
It made a second referral in respect of a second officer who sprayed Pava spray in the eyes of a man, also of Asian descent, who was filming them.
In a statement on Friday, Catherine Bates, the IOPC regional director, said the police constable would be interviewed under caution as soon as possible.
“I have today met one of the men who was involved and his family members to outline our investigation and we will continue to update them and Greater Manchester Police as our enquiries progress,” she said. “We will be speaking to the man involved in the second incident as soon as we can.
“The family has asked me to reiterate their call for peace and wish to stress that they do not condone any acts of violence as a result of this incident.
“We are meeting with a number of community leaders in Rochdale this afternoon to listen to their concerns and explain our role.
“Our investigation continues to gather relevant evidence and will be following a number of lines of inquiry. We will provide further updates when we are in a position to do so.”
It came as Lee Anderson suggested the armed officer should be given a medal.
He told BBC Politics Live: “The message I’m getting loud and clear from my constituents is that they’re fed up with seeing police dancing around rainbows and being nice to people and running off from rioters.
“They want the police to do their job. And I think these police yesterday should be commended, in fact, I’d give them a medal.”
