Keir Starmer has sought to define his Labour leadership through “zero tolerance” of anti-Semitism. But when it emerged on Saturday night that the party’s Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali had expressed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory – that Israel allowed the 7 October massacre to happen to give it a “green light” to invade Gaza – Labour stood by him.
Earlier today, shadow cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, a close ally of Keir Starmer, said that Ali had “fallen for an online conspiracy theory” and that his apology was sufficient. Yesterday shadow international development secretary Lisa Nandy appeared alongside Ali at a scheduled campaign event. The party at large suggested that it had no choice but to support Ali – under electoral law it cannot select an alternative candidate before the by-election on 29 February (the deadline was 2 February).
Content from our partners
