UK Labour Party suspends candidate for speaking up against 'Israel'
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This is the second candidate the party has suspended this week for having pro-Palestine views and speaking up against the Israeli occupation.
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Keir Starmer, Leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party delivers a speech at a business conference in London, Thursday, February 1, 2024. (AP)
UK's Labour Party suspended a candidate yesterday for the upcoming general election, Graham Jones, for a published recording of him sharing a negative and disapproving opinion of "Israel." Jones is currently under investigation.
Before this incident, the party also cut off Azhar Ali, another candidate because of another recording of him criticizing "Israel."
The Guido Fawkes website released an audio recording of Jones stating that it was recorded at the same local party meeting attended by Ali in October.
The party's current leader, Keir Starmer, stated after Jones's suspension, "When I say the Labour Party has changed under my leadership, I meant it," in an attempt to distance himself from the position of the party's former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was pro-Palestine.
Polls reveal that the party might form Britain's next government after the general election that will take place second half of this year.
Labour unable to replace Azhar Ali
The British Labour Party withdrew its support for Azhar Ali, its candidate in this month's Rochdale byelection, following his comments on "Israel".
Labour is unable to replace Ali with another candidate under election rules because the time for doing so expired on February 2. He will run as a Labour candidate on the ballot, but if elected, he will not wield the party whip and will instead serve as an independent MP.
A recording was leaked to the Daily Mail in which Ali was saying, “The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel 10 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.”
According to Labour insiders, activists in Rochdale were directed by party headquarters to suspend leafleting and social media activities on Ali's behalf from 5.30 pm on Monday.
Senior party MPs and members had asked the leadership to confirm Ali's suspension after he implied that "Israel" had purposefully loosened security following warnings of an imminent attack.
