Despite Azhar Ali’s inflammatory remarks accusing Israel of complicity in the October 7th Hamas massacre to justify a military response in Gaza, he remains the Labour candidate for the upcoming Rochdale by-election. The Mail has the story.
Azhar Ali, who is defending a Labour majority of more than 9,000 in Rochdale on February 29th, has apologised for claiming the Netanyahu Government deliberately allowed 1,400 of its citizens to be massacred in order to give it the “green light” for military action.
Mr. Ali is the strong favourite to win the safe seat after the death of its former MP Tony Lloyd, meaning Labour could have a new MP in early March who believes in a conspiracy theory.
The bombshell remarks – contained in a secret recording obtained by the Mail on Sunday – also recorded him saying Sir Keir Starmer had “lost the confidence” of his MPs over his stance on the conflict.
Labour’s election co-ordinator Pat McFadden today said that Mr. Ali would still be the candidate in the February 29th vote – though he stopped short of saying he would stand in the seat in the General Election later this year.
“It was wrong to say that, he should never have said it,” Mr. McFadden told Sky News.
Asked if he remained a Labour candidate, he added: “In the upcoming by-election? Yes he will.”
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “Were it not too late to do so, we would have called on Labour to replace Mr. Ali as a candidate. It is clear to us that Mr. Ali is not apologising out of a genuine sense of remorse.” …
Mr. Ali made his initial remarks at a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party soon after the attacks, making the astonishing claim that the Israeli Government had removed its border security to give the Hamas terrorists free rein.
He told the meeting: “The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel ten days earlier… Americans warned them a day before [that] there’s something happening… They deliberately took the security off, they allowed… that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Northern Ireland’s newly appointed First Minister Michelle O’Neill has made headlines in the Mail by suggesting that Hamas could eventually become a “partner for peace” in the Middle East.
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