A second Labour candidate has now been suspended over comments criticising Israel, after Sir Keir Starmer faced questions over his party’s “shambolic” U-turn on withdrawing support for its Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali.
Breaking his silence on Tuesday, Sir Keir insisted he took “tough” action to withdraw support for Mr Ali, who apologised after he was recorded suggesting in a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party that Israel had taken the 7 October Hamas attack as a pretext to invade Gaza.
He was initially backed by the party for his swift apology and retraction of the remarks – but in a dramatic climbdown on Monday night, the party said its support for him had been withdrawn following “new information about further comments”, and he was suspended from the party pending an investigation.
In a further blow to Sir Keir, the Guido Fawkes website published a recording of the same meeting in which Hyndburn candidate Graham Jones referred to “f***ing Israel” and said Britons who fight for the Israel Defence Forces should be locked up”. He has been swiftly suspended pending investigation.
