Second candidate suspended

LABOUR has insisted that there are “strong checks” on would-be MPS, after a second parliamentary candidate was suspended over remarks about Israel.

Sir Keir Starmer’s party has been pitched into a row about the handling of anti-semitism allegations, with parliamentary candidate Graham Jones suspended on Tuesday.

It came only a day after Labour was forced to suspend and withdraw its backing for Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali.

It came after audio, obtained by website Guido Fawkes, appeared to show the former Labour MP use the words “f ****** Israel” at the same meeting Mr Ali attended, while also allegedly suggesting that British people who volunteer to fight with the Israel Defence Forces should be “locked up”.

With his candidacy for Hyndburn now in doubt, it is understood Mr Jones was called to an interview on Tuesday evening with party officials.

Any move to drop him as a candidate would have to follow a formal party process.

Shadow defence secretary John Healey said not everyone in his party was a “saint”, but said Labour should be judged on how it responds to complaints or allegations.

He said: “Restoring, retaining the trust of the Jewish community and any community is a constant process.

“And Keir Starmer is deeply, deeply aware of that.

“He pledged to root out anti-semitism as part of the changes he wanted to make to Labour, regarded them as essential. He’s done that.

“But this is not a party of people who are saints.

“When people do things that may be wrong, say things that may be unacceptable, the important thing is how does the party respond.

“We have an independent investigations process and when it concerns candidates or MPS, we expect as the public does the very highest standards.”

But the row has shone a spotlight on candidate selection in the party, as well as questions about whether Sir Keir has fulfilled his promise to root out anti-semitism in his party following the scandals that overshadowed Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as leader.

Mr Ali had apologised after he was recorded in a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party suggesting that Israel had taken the October 7 Hamas assault as a pretext to invade Gaza.

But Labour moved to end its backing of the candidate after the Daily Mail reported that he had blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” for fuelling criticism of a propalestinian MP.

Mike Katz, chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he would like any party members at the Rochdale meeting to be suspended if they failed to call out the language used.

But he also defended the progress made by the Labour leadership to tackle anti-semitism, while admitting it had not been the party’s “finest hour”.

Mr Katz said: “The idea that somehow we are still in the kind of the bad days of the Corbyn leadership is really ludicrous.

“We have gone through a transformation, the difference is like night and day in the way that we are treated as an organisation, the way that our members are treated.

“This has not been the