Who is Shamir Sanni, Sam Smith's boyfriend? Know everything about the 'outed and betrayed' Brexit whistleblower
A blossoming relationship always makes for a great story. And something to that effect might be happening between two public figures. We are talking about musician Sam Smith and political activist Shahmir Sanni. A Daily Mail report states that a source close to the singer has informed them that Smith has been on several dates with Sanni. The news outlet had even published photos of the two enjoying drinks in London. Interestingly, the pair seems to be odd because of their opposite political ideologies. Smith has been vocal about equal rights, and has been a supporter for the gender non-conforming community after coming out as non-binary in March last year. On the other hand, Sanni worked for the Vote Leave campaign during the 2016 EU referendum.
Sanni is known for his outspoken nature. In a GQ interview, he stated, “I just talk sh*t about politicians.” Two years ago, Sanni was in the headlines for being a whistleblower. He had alleged that the Brexit campaign Vote Leave, for which he was a volunteer, did not adhere to election spending rules, making the referendum result 'illegal'. His former boyfriend Stephen Parkinson, who at the time was an aide to then British PM Theresa May, issued a statement defending Vote Leave — and admitted to have been in a relationship with Sanni during the referendum. But this in turn ‘outed’ Sanni, who had not yet come out as gay to his family.
According to the Daily Mail report, Sanni's lawyer had issued a statement saying: “We believe this is the first time a Downing Street official statement has been used to out someone. My client is now having to come out to his mother and family.” In his later media interactions, the political activist said he had to organize security for his family back in Pakistan because of the criminal status of homosexuality there, and accused Parkinson of “outing him” against his will.
Describing his feelings about the incident to The Guardian, he said, “I’m glad my family knows now, but the way it happened — it wasn’t honest. It wasn’t me saying, ‘I love you guys now enough to tell you everything.’ It wasn’t me saying ‘I’ve accepted myself in a way that I feel comfortable sharing with you’. I was numb from the shock of it. I was like ‘What’s the point?’. I thought my family was going to get shot in the head anyway, so I might as well die too.” After he was outed, he became an advocate for queer people of color.
Smith, in the past, has been linked to a number of well-known men — most recently he was in a relationship with ‘13 Reasons Why’ actor Brandon Flynn. They split last year. The Grammy winner has previously been linked to Charlie King and model Jonathon Ziezel. According to Mirror, Smith is said to be gearing up to release their third studio album – but the planned 2020 release has been paused amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.