Lewis Goodall

Well, say hello to Phil next time you see him.

Bye-bye.

Hey.

Yeah.

Oh, it's just for the elections.

So when I said at the start of the episode that Birmingham politics was descending and is likely to descend further into chaos, that is what I meant.

Because just imagine after this election where there is likely to be a hung council with no one with a majority and imagine five or 10 or 15 or who knows even more of Mr. Yacoub's independence parties and party members sitting as councillors

That's the sort of thing we might expect, or at least a version of it.

And I have to say, in all the years I've been doing this political reporting, I have never, ever been barred from an interview location before.

Habibi's, never been able to go back there.

It was so 2026.

That is so 2026.

It is so 2026 politics.

In that, everything and what Jakub, chequered character as he is, a lot of people would say sinister character as he is, potential criminal as he is, completely understands

about contemporary politics which he clearly understood in 2024 which he has harnessed and honed even since then it is all content it is a content game we were just part of his content game on some level we knew that going in and we certainly knew it when we came out

And that is his skill.

And you might say it is a skill of a charlatan or a snake oil salesman, but it is that skill, that ability to basically use a TikTok account and social media and this bizarre character that he has created for himself, which has led him to be, even though he has not standing in this election, has led him to be the de facto leader of an entirely sizeable, an entire and sizeable community.

within Birmingham, and indeed hero worshipped by a great number of them.

And where he is leading and directing, as uncomfortable as it might be, others are following, not least, as we have seen, in how he is treating, and you heard him talk about it in that interview there, and it's in his leaflets,

how he is treating the Green Party and how he is honing in on the fact that although the Greens at a national level are becoming a home and focus for Muslim votes and for people disaffected by Gaza, in so many ways, there are...