Why is Starmer Standing by Azhar Ali?

[Dogfisher]

AIBU to think that he should be out on his ear for his blatant anti-Semitism? I actually thought that Starmer was dealing with this in the LP - but this seems to suggest otherwise.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/12/labour-criticised-for-backing-rochdale-candidate-after-offensive-israel-remark

If Ali gets elected, he must be reinstated as thats democracy

Reinstated as what? A Labour MP? The people can vote for whoever they like as their MP but that doesn't mean that any particular party has to allow them to represent them.

Thinking further... If he were to be prosecuted and convicted with a 1 year sentence then he would be removed from office, but that is unlikely without further remarks as he would argue that he was in a private space etc. A House of Commons committee could suspend him if he makes further racist comments while in office, but if he maintains apologies rather than doubling down that seems unlikely as it goes against the right to vote.

Labour are unused to factions releasing against own party

But it will happen.

Whoever recorded it should have passed it on to whoever drew up a shortlist of Labour candidates for the by-election

How do you know that they didn't?

The DM and others don’t care which party is releasing they’ll just use it for hits

It’s not hard to see, it’s been happening with current gov already

This though, good someone did expose it. Flush out antisemitic conspiracists.

Convicted for saying that? We’ve had a PM who proudly wrote extremely racist articles. I think you’re on cloud cuckoo land if you think he would be convicted.

I explicitly said a conviction was unlikely without further remarks, try reading it again.

If they did and it was ignored then heads should roll.

Oh come on! If a Tory candidate had said it, it wouldn’t have been used. It’s the Mail we’re talking about here.

Genuinely interested if you posted the same threads about Boris Johnson and his many horrificly Islamaphobic comments that actually cause an increase in anti Muslim attacks?

Did partygate pass people by?

Did the DM not cover it

The campaign ended up taking out a PM

People are in la la land if they think the press don’t use releases for £

Labour have been out of power for a long time

They have factions that will fight against each other, release to the press as happened here

Partygate was a huge scandal, no mainstream outlet could have avoided reporting it. The Mail made its position very clear when it recruited that disgraced PM as a columnist.

Everything gets covered

Rishi’s wife in the DM

Small to big it’s just a story for £

There are calls for everyone present at the meeting to be suspended.

Do you really believe most papers in the U.K. don’t have an agenda and just cover the news that is happening?

This is part of the discipline of running a political party. Ali was selected and still made anti semitic and conspiracy theory comments. He's not up to it. This other candidate should also have realised the contentious part of what he was saying, but didn't. Prosecuting his fellow citizens fighting lawfully for a sovereign government? That's permitted and no case to address.

Both of these men aren't up to being MPs because they can't keep to a line before they are elected. Useless.

They are also antisemitic. Why did they get past selection?

An agenda yes

The idea that the DM doesn’t cover the gov for £ no

Whether it’s going for Sunak’s rich wife or a release on some phrase uttered

The DM don’t say oh no not for us. Clearly they don’t as they use it

If you and others were correct I’d not be able to link any of that from the DM

I do think Labour are as politically vicious with each other and in power you’ll get releases from colleagues they are fighting against. Like this release

His comment is anti Israeli government not antisemitic.
Thankfully we seem to have moved past a point where criticism of the Israeli government is seen as antisemitic.
If you look at the level of global outrage about Israel's actions, including from Jewish groups, that demonstrates this.

Ludicrous. Suspended from what? From what’s been reported it was a community meeting for people concerned about labours stance on Gaza. Many won’t be in the party, might not even be labour voters. Labour is losing voters over Starmer’s stance, not gaining them!

Why did they get past selection?

I suspect because selection is less rigorous when a local politician is a candidate. I’m pretty sure the level of scrutiny would be higher if all the candidates were unknown quantities.

Not agreeing with you is not 'crawling out of the woodwork' (nice imagery of anyone who disagrees with you as being insect like though).
The gaslighting of people who are opposed to genocide with accusations of antisemitism is thankfully fading away.

His comment is anti Israeli government not antisemitic.

Which is presumably why he wasn't suspended immediately until the more obviously antisemitic comment about Jews controlling the media was also released.

The Labour party took action against him - how have posters missed this?

Not agreeing with you is not 'crawling out of the woodwork' (nice imagery of anyone who disagrees with you as being insect like though)

Anti-semites are beneath contempt.