14 February 2024 , 17:40
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Labour has warned it will dump any election candidates who do not meet the "highest standards" as it attempts to draw a line under a row that has hit the party.
It came as a third Labour politician was "spoken to" by party officials. It was alleged the Hyndburn councillor Munsif Dad attended a meeting of activists that has led to the suspension of two party candidates.
Former MP Graham Jones, who was due to stand in Hyndburn at the next election for Labour, was suspended on Tuesday after audio emerged of him referring to "f***ing Israel". He also allegedly suggested that British people who volunteer to fight with the Israeli Defence Forces should be "locked up".
On Monday Labour also withdrew support for the party's candidate for the Rochdale by-election, Azhar Ali, for allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks at the same gathering. The move has left the party in the extraordinary situation of having no official candidate for Labour voters to support at the by-election later this month. It is not known whether Mr Dad contributed to the meeting or whether the comments by Mr Ali or Mr Jones were challenged.
Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said the most "important" measure of how Labour has changed was how it responds to complaints or concerns relating to candidates and MPs. He told Sky News: "Restoring, retaining the trust of the Jewish community and any community is a constant process. And Keir Starmer is deeply, deeply aware of that.
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"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."
Mr Healey said Mr Jones’s comments were "unacceptable". He added: “If the party decides, Keir Starmer decides, that he too is not meeting the highest standards that the public have a right to expect and Keir Starmer insists on in our candidates... then he will be replaced."
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 party's finest hour. We have huge lessons to learn, but the direction of travel is very much upwards. It's very much in the right direction." The Mirror has contacted Mr Dad for comment.