Labour in turmoil as party ditches second candidate over Israel views

Starmer on defensive amid infighting over election car crash’

- Kiran Stacey Eleni Courea Aletha Adu

Labour has suspended a second parliamentary candidate over his remarks about Israel, as Keir Starmer struggles to contain the fallout from the leak of a private meeting of Labour activists in Lancashire last year. Party sources said yesterday that Labour had suspended Graham Jones, the candidate for Hyndburn, less than 24 hours after the party withdrew support from Azhar Ali, its candidate for the Rochdale byelection this month.

With the party now looking for two new candidates for the general election, senior Labour figures were fighting among themselves over who was to blame for the escalating crisis.

One Labour activist called the party’s handling of the controversy a “shit show”. A senior Labour peer called it a “car crash”, adding: “We should be more careful in who we have as our candidates.”

Starmer defended his decisions yesterday, following a damaging 48 hours in which he had initially backed Ali before changing his mind when new recordings emerged from the meeting.

“Certain information came to light over the weekend in relation to the candidate [and] there was a fulsome apology,” he said. “Further information came to light yesterday calling for decisive action, so I took decisive action.”

The recordings come from a single meeting in October, which sources have told the Guardian was held between Ali, Jones and a group of Labour councillors who were threatening to quit the party over its stance on Gaza.