Balls: Handling of party’s antiSemitism crisis ‘embarrassing’

SIR KEIR STARMER’S handling of anti-semitism rows in Labour has been “embarrassing”, Ed Balls has said after criticism of the opposition leader for not acting quickly enough.

Sir Keir stood by Azhar Ali, who was the party’s candidate for the forthcoming by-election in Rochdale, after he apologised for claiming Israel allowed Hamas to massacre its citizens on Oct 7

The Labour leader withdrew support for the aspiring MP two days later when fresh remarks emerged in which Mr Ali railed against “some of the people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” and accused Israel of a “land grab”.

Graham Jones became the second parliamentary candidate to be suspended in as many days over remarks made at the same meeting in which he allegedly referred to “f---- Israel” and said British volunteers in the Israel Defense Forces should be “locked up”. On the latest episode of the Political

Thinking podcast, Mr Balls, a former Labour shadow chancellor, said: “It’s definitely a basic error. It’s a huge mess. It’s embarrassing and difficult, and you don’t feel like it’s the end of the story.

“You feel like this is the thin end of what could be a thick wedge. I mean, how many other recordings are there?”

George Osborne, the Conservative chancellor between 2010 and 2016 who co-hosts the podcast with Mr Balls, said it had been a “horrific week” for Sir Keir.

“It’s been the worst week of his leadership in terms of the struggles he’s had. What seems to me really unforgivable in terms of competent party management is not to have established at that point that [Mr Ali] didn’t say anything else embarrassing at the same meeting.”

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, insisted yesterday her party leader “acted swiftly” in the wake of the accusations against Mr Ali and Mr Jones.

Sir Keir has made a crackdown on anti-semitism in Labour a focus of his leadership after the party was plagued by a series of crises under his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

It came as a new Yougov poll showed only 3 per cent of voters thought Sir Keir had successfully tackled anti-semitism in his party.

The survey also found 23 per cent of voters believed he had “failed to tackle” the issue, while 26 per cent said “progress” had been made but more work must be done.

When asked about Sir Keir’s handling of the Rochdale row, 29 per cent said he handled it well and 27 per cent badly.

‘You feel like this is the thin end of what could be a thick wedge. How many other recordings are there?’