The departing lord mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid intends to run in the European Parliament election in May, should the U.K. have to participate due to the continued Brexit standstill, the Guardian reported Wednesday.
The 29-year-old, who has served as Sheffield’s mayor since May 2018, said he wants to become the first Green party MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber.
Magid, who supports the People’s Vote campaign calling for a second Brexit referendum, said the main motivation behind his plan was to stand up against what he considers the regrettable state of the U.K. since the referendum. He pointed to “a massive rise in hate crime across the country,” in the aftermath of the vote.
“The far-right will be mobilising. This will be about the soul of Britain,” he added.
Magid made headlines when he “banned” U.S. president Donald Trump from Sheffield last year, calling him a “wasteman”.
“I get people giving me shit every day on social media, but for every negative message there’s been a hundred positive ones. People are tired of the status quo,” he said.
Born in Somalia, Magid fled to the United Kingdom with his mother when he was five years old, escaping the deteriorating conditions in the failed state on the east coast of Africa. “I would want to be a voice and an advocate for refugees and young people in general,” he said, adding that at the European level there was a lack of representation for Ethnic minorities.