Keir Starmer withdraws support for Labour Rochdale candidate after ‘Jewish media’ trope

For free actual time breaking information alerts despatched straight to your inbox signal as much as our breaking information emails

Sign as much as our free breaking information emails

Sir Keir Starmer is beneath hearth after pulling his support for Labour’s Rochdale by-election candidate over a sequence of remarks he made about Israel.

The Labour chief backed Azhar Ali to contest the by-election regardless of him having been recorded suggesting that Israel had allowed the allowed the 7 October Hamas assault to happen with a view to invade Gaza.

But, in a dramatic climbdown on Monday night time, the get together mentioned its support for Mr Ali had been withdrawn following “new information about further comments”. He has additionally been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.

The newest feedback had been revealed by the Daily Mail and got here on the identical Lancashire Labour Party assembly Mr Ali made his earlier remarks about Israel. He is alleged to have mentioned “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” had been “giving crap” about MP Andy McDonald, who was suspended by Labour after he used the phrase “between the river and the sea” in a speech throughout a rally.

He can be reported to have claimed Israel deliberate to “get rid of [Palestinians] from Gaza” and “grab” among the land.

Labour had come beneath critical stress to disown Mr Ali after his preliminary feedback emerged, with get together figures and opposition MPs siezing on the remarks.

But the get together publicly stood by their candidate, with shadow minister Nick Thomas-Symonds insisting it might be “unfair” to conclude there’s a drawback with Labour in Rochdale, including that Mr Ali had merely “fallen for an online conspiracy theory”.

He additionally claimed there had been “a transformation” within the Labour Party’s dealing with of antisemitism beneath Sir Keir.

Sir Keir has sought to maneuver his get together on from the Corbyn period, throughout which the get together was dogged by complaints over its dealing with of antisemitism within the get together.

The management is now being pressed on why Mr Ali had not been instantly suspended after the feedback emerged.

Labour just lately suspended the MP Kate Osamor after she appeared to say the Gaza battle needs to be remembered as genocide on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Labour’s nationwide marketing campaign coordinator Pat McFadden advised broadcasters the get together acted as a result of “new information and more comments have come to light which meant that we had to look at this situation again”.

A spokesperson mentioned: “Keir Starmer has changed Labour so that it is unrecognisable from the party of 2019.

“We understand that these are highly unusual circumstances, but it is vital that any candidate put forward by Labour fully represents its aims and values.

“Given that nominations have now closed, Azhar Ali cannot be replaced as the candidate.”

The resolution to withdraw backing for the candidate will come as a blow to the get together, which had hoped to retain the seat following the dying final month of sitting MP Sir Tony Lloyd.

Mr Ali, who can be a Lancashire County Councillor, apologised to the Jewish group and retracted his unique remarks, which he described as “deeply offensive, ignorant and false”.

The resolution to withdraw support for the candidate got here the identical day that shadow minister Nick Thomas-Symonds mentioned Mr Ali had fallen “for an online conspiracy theory” and insisted Labour would “continue this campaign in Rochdale”.

Frontbenchers Lisa Nandy and Anneliese Dodds had been out campaigning for Mr Ali within the constituency on the weekend.

Rishi Sunak, chatting with GB News viewers on Monday at an occasion in County Durham, mentioned it was a “con” to recommend Labour has been reformed.

He mentioned: “Keir Starmer has been running around for the last year trying to tell everybody ‘Okay, Labour Party’s changed’. Well, look what just happened in Rochdale.”

He accused Sir Keir of getting “stood by and sent cabinet ministers to support him, until literally five minutes before I walked on tonight, under enormous media pressure, has decided to change his mind on principle”.

“No principles at all,” he added.

Labour’s resolution will add appreciable uncertainty to the result of the by-election when voters go to the polls on the finish of the month.

Also working in Rochdale are former Labour MP Simon Danczuk, now the Reform Party candidate, and George Galloway, of the Workers Party of Britain, who’s campaigning towards Labour’s stance on Gaza.

About 20% of the voters and 30% of the inhabitants of the city are Asian, with polls nationally suggesting Labour’s vote could possibly be hit by Asian individuals sad with the get together over Palestine and its perceived support for Israel.

If elected, Mr Ali will sit as an impartial MP and won’t obtain the get together whip. The resolution implies that Labour can even have to discover a new candidate to contest the seat on the upcoming common election.

A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism mentioned: “Sir Keir Starmer has blotted an otherwise fairly admirable copybook and given the public reason to doubt the earnestness of his promise to tear antisemitism out ‘by its roots’ in Labour.

“People will have to judge for themselves whether the additional reported comments by Azhar Ali are really any worse than the comments that had already been reported.

“Rather than appearing as a principled decision, Labour’s withdrawal of support for its candidate at this late stage just looks as expedient as the failed attempt to defend him. It is the worst of all worlds for Labour.”