Sunak accuses Starmer of ‘standing by’ Azhar Ali after Israel remarks
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retraction of the remarks – but in a dramatic climbdown on Monday night, the party said its support for him had been withdrawn following “new information about further comments”, and he was suspended from the party pending an investigation.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.
It is difficult to imagine anything good emerging from the wreckage of the Rochdale by-election
Editorial: Vague promises of ‘levelling up’ gone nowhere, grooming gangs, and now antisemitism – Rochdale deserves better than this
ICYMI: Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters rally outside Downing Street
Labour’s Rochdale by-election row part of antisemitism ‘tornado’ in UK, expert warns
Britain is facing a “tornado” of anti-Jewish racism working its way through the country, the government’s antisemitism tsar has warned.
John Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, has called on political leaders from all parties to “get their collective acts together to sort this out”.
The ex-Labour MP’s dramatic intervention comes amid the latest antisemitism scandal engulfing Labour, after Sir Keir Starmer dropped the party’s Rochdale by-election candidate over comments he made about Israel.
Furious Briton rants at Rishi Sunak for more than one minute over Covid vaccine
Labour think-tank boss apologises for saying smuggling gangs should be shipped to Scotland
The director of an influential Labour think-tank has apologised after suggesting the government should put people-smugglers on a barge and ship it to the north of Scotland.
Fuelling tensions just days ahead of Scottish Labour’s annual conference, Josh Simons apologised for his “poorly judged comment made in jest” – which was denounced as “stupid” and “cringe” by Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Speaking to LBC on Monday, Mr Simons – whose group Labour Together has close links to Sir Keir Starmer’s top team – said his main concern with Rishi Sunak’s ailing policy of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda “is not actually the human rights implications of it”.
Starmer engulfed in second Labour antisemitism row after Rochdale by-election furore
Sir Keir Starmer is at the centre of a second antisemitism storm after Labour was forced to suspend a would-be MP just 24 hours after it ditched its candidate in the Rochdale by-election.
The party acted after Graham Jones, the prospective Labour MP for Hyndburn, appeared to say that Britons who volunteer to fight for the Israel Defense Forces “should be locked up”.
His taped comments, in which he also referred to “f***ing Israel”, were reportedly made in a rant to Labour’s former candidate in Rochdale, Azhar Ali, at a now infamous meeting at which Mr Ali claimed that Israel had “allowed” last October’s Hamas terror attacks to take place so that it could use them as a pretext to attack Gaza.
Government ‘looking closely’ at bringing injured Gazan children to UK for treatment
Lord Cameron said the Government is “looking closely” at the possibility of bringing children injured in Gaza to the UK for medical care.
He said: “This is Project Pure Hope, we are looking very closely at this – is it possible to take the people in greatest need and take them to British hospitals, as we have done in the past?
“The early work we’ve done is to say that there’s much we can do in the region and we should probably do that first, so helping in the field hospitals that have been established, helping to send medical teams to referral hospitals that are being used in the region supporting organisations like medical aid for Palestinians
“Now if that leads to the identification of specific cases where actually they would be better off taking that long journey back to Britain and going to Great Ormond Street Hospital, then we certainly don’t rule that out and continue to look at it.”
Breaking: Labour suspends second candidate over Israel remarks
Keir Starmer is at the centre of a second antisemitism storm after Labour was forced to suspend a would-be MP just 24 hours after it ditched its candidate in the Rochdale by-election.
The party acted on Tuesday after Graham Jones, the prospective Labour MP for Hyndburn, said Britons who volunteer to fight for the Israeli Defence Force “should be locked up”.
His taped comments, in which he also referred to “f**king Israel”, were reportedly made in a rant to Azhar Ali at a now infamous meeting in which Mr Ali claimed Israel “allowed” the Hamas terror attack as an excuse to attack Gaza.
Jewish Labour Movement, one of the oldest societies affiliated to the party, demanded an investigation and said the party should stand Jones down as a candidate.
My colleagues Kate Devlin and Archie Mitchell have more in this report:
ICYMI: Sunak insists views on issues facing trans people ‘not controversial’
Sunak insists views on issues facing trans people ‘not controversial’
Rishi Sunak insisted his views on issues facing transgender people are “not controversial” after facing criticism for a jibe during Prime Minister’s Questions last week. The prime minister faced backlash after accusing Sir Keir Starmer of not being able to “define a woman” while Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey, was visiting Parliament. Speaking to the public during a GB News forum on Monday, Mr Sunak said: “When it comes to questions over women’s safety… biological sex is important “I really don’t think that anything I just said is controversial.”
Watch: Israel should ‘stop and think very seriously’ before further action in Rafah, says David Cameron
Israel should ‘think very seriously’ before Rafah action, says David Cameron
David Cameron has said that Israel should “stop and think very seriously” before taking further action in the city of Rafah The British Foreign Secretary was speaking to reporters in East Kilbride, Scotland on Monday (11 February). The comments came after airstrikes in southern Gaza killed over 100 Palestinians, according to local health officials. The city is the last refuge of around one million displaced civilians. “We are very concerned about the situation and we want Israel to stop and think very seriously before it takes any further action. But above all, what we want is an immediate pause in the fighting and we want that pause to lead to a ceasefire,” Lord Cameron said.
