Labour faces fresh crisis over anti-israel remarks

Starmer disowns second election candidate and faces pressure to investigate five more

SIR KEIR STARMER faces a deepening anti-semitism crisis after he was forced to take action against a second Parliamentary candidate in 24 hours.

The Labour leader suspended Graham Jones, who was due to stand in Hyndburn, where he was MP until 2019, after it emerged that he referred to “f--ing Israel” at a public meeting and said that British volunteers in the Israel Defense Forces should be “locked up”.

He was pushed into the decision less than a day after he was forced to remove support for Azhar Ali, his candidate for this month’s Rochdale by-election, following an outcry over a string of antisemitic remarks made by Mr Ali at the same gathering that went unchallenged.

Yesterday, Sir Keir insisted that his party had changed and vowed to punish any more candidates accused of making similar comments, saying any allegations would be thoroughly investigated.

However, he was later criticised over his “shambolic” handling of the crisis and urged to “get a grip” on anti-semitism in the party, instead of simply playing “racist whack-a-mole”.

Sir Keir will come under further pressure to investigate five more MPS and candidates who The Telegraph can reveal have been involved in controversies over Israel. Two shadow cabinet ministers – Thangam Debonnaire and Shabana Mahmood – are among those to have expressed contentious views on Gaza, while former shadow minister Afzal Khan previously compared the Israeli government to Nazis.

Zarah Sultana, the Left-wing MP, liked an anti-israel social media post last month while a councillor running in Southampton allegedly attended a pro-palestine rally in November.

Sir Keir is also facing growing demands to reveal which MPS and councillors were at the Lancashire meeting where Mr Jones and Mr Ali made their incendiary remarks.

The issue of anti-semitism has long plagued the Labour Party, with Sir Keir vowing to “tear out the poison” after taking over as leader from Jeremy Corbyn, who was found to have overseen the spread of racism against Jewish people within the party.

Sir Keir has come under fire from his party over his refusal to back a ceasefire in Gaza, with Labour MPS privately fearing that some could fail to get reelected because of a backlash among Muslim voters. One former Labour official, who was a senior figure in Gordon Brown’s No10, said Sir Keir needed to “get a grip” and warned that anti-semitism was still “rife” within the party.

“If we are going to clean it up, let’s clean it up – the test will be whether Labour keeps playing racist whack-amole or actually decides to get a grip,” they said.

Sir Keir faced criticism over his initial decision to stick by Mr Ali for two days after it emerged that the candidate had told a meeting of local activists in Hyndburn, Lancashire, that Israel may have “deliberately allowed” the Hamas terror attacks on Oct 7 to happen in order to justify its war in Gaza.

After Mr Ali apologised, a succession of frontbenchers were sent out onto the airwaves to defend him. But on Monday

night a fresh recording of the meeting revealed Mr Ali had also railed against “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters”. Sir Keir learnt of the comments on Monday afternoon and withdrew his support three hours later.

The crisis intensified yesterday when a recording emerged of Mr Jones, a former Labour MP who had been selected to run again as the party’s candidate in Hyndburn, making his own speech at the gathering. Sir Keir suspended him within the hour.

Martin Forde KC, a lawyer who led a 2022 review into anti-semitism within the Labour Party under Mr Corbyn, said it was “very concerning” that nobody present at the gathering appeared to have pushed back on the comments.

The Campaign Against Anti-semitism urged Sir Keir to publicly identify the attendees, saying that Labour must “put a line in the sand and declare that it will not tolerate extremist views”.

Yesterday, Sir Keir told reporters he had taken “decisive action” to “make it absolutely clear that this is a changed Labour Party”.

Speaking before suspending Mr Jones, he added that if other candidates were found to have made incendiary remarks then “any allegation that needs to be investigated will be investigated”.

One Labour backbencher branded the last few days “shambolic crisis management”. Another MP said it seemed officials “didn’t do due diligence”.

The Telegraph can reveal that several other candidates, including two members of the shadow cabinet, have previously made controversial remarks about Israel that contradict Labour’s official stance.

Ms Debonnaire, the shadow culture secretary, said in 2015 that selling arms to Israel was a “grave concern” and accused the Jewish state of violating international law.

Ms Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, urged thousands of people to “boycott Israeli goods” and bombard their MPS at their constituency surgeries back in 2014.