Two Labour politicians, Graham Jones and Azhar Ali, have been suspended from the party after allegedly making anti-Semitic remarks at a gathering.
Mr Ali, who is on the ballot paper at the upcoming Rochdale by-election, allegedly blamed people in the media from certain Jewish quarters for fuelling criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP.
It then emerged on Tuesday that former Labour MP for Hyndburn, Graham Jones, allegedly referred to "f-ing Israel" at the same meeting and that UK citizens volunteering to fight for the Israeli Defense Forces should be locked up.
A third senior Labour politician, Hyndburn councillor Munsif Dad, also attended the gathering and has reportedly been "spoken to" by Labour officials.
But Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of failing to act quickly enough, despite repeatedly claiming that rooting out anti-Semitism from the party was one of his top priorities. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Mr Ali, who is on the ballot paper at the upcoming Rochdale by-election, allegedly blamed people in the media from certain Jewish quarters for fuelling criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP.
It then emerged on Tuesday that former Labour MP for Hyndburn, Graham Jones, allegedly referred to "f-ing Israel" at the same meeting and that UK citizens volunteering to fight for the Israeli Defense Forces should be locked up.
A third senior Labour politician, Hyndburn councillor Munsif Dad, also attended the gathering and has reportedly been "spoken to" by Labour officials.
But Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of failing to act quickly enough, despite repeatedly claiming that rooting out anti-Semitism from the party was one of his top priorities. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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NewsTranscript
00:00 It started with a promise.
00:03 I said I would tear out antisemitism by its roots from our party.
00:07 Then some action.
00:08 I blame the Labour's antisemitism policies.
00:10 But now antisemitism in the Labour Party appears to have reared its ugly head once more.
00:16 The party has suspended Graham Jones and Azhar Ali over comments they allegedly made at a gathering.
00:22 It's at this meeting that Mr Ali, who is on the ballot paper at the upcoming Rochdale by-election,
00:27 allegedly blamed people in the media from certain Jewish quarters for fuelling criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP.
00:34 He's also accused of claiming Israel planned to get rid of Palestinians from Gaza and grab some of the land.
00:40 Labour withdrew support for him on Monday and have suspended him from the party.
00:45 It then emerged on Tuesday that former Labour MP for Hindburn, Graham Jones,
00:50 allegedly referred to 'f***ing Israel' at the same gathering
00:54 and that UK citizens volunteering to fight for the Israeli Defence Forces should be locked up.
00:59 Mr Jones, who Labour had chosen to contest his former Lancashire seat, was then suspended and has since not commented on the issue.
01:06 A third Labour politician, Hindburn councillor Munzif Dad, is understood to have been spoken to over the meeting.
01:12 But Sakir Starmer has been accused of failing to act quickly enough.
01:16 Mr Ali was already under the spotlight.
01:19 He allegedly told a meeting of Lancashire Labour party members that Israel allowed the October 7 Hamas incursion to happen
01:25 to give it the green light to invade Gaza.
01:28 But Labour had initially stood by the Rochdale candidate after he had apologised unreservedly.
01:34 Sakir Starmer has repeatedly said rooting out anti-Semitism from Labour is one of his top priorities.
01:40 It's an issue that has plagued the party for decades, most famously when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.
01:46 By May 2016, Naz Shah was one of 56 members that had been suspended from the party for making alleged anti-Semitic statements.
01:54 Ken Livingstone was suspended from Labour in the same year over comments he allegedly made about Adolf Hitler supporting Zionism.
02:01 People have been offended, I am really sorry about that.
02:03 They're not offended because I said the truth, exactly the same thing as the Prime Minister of Israel said 48 hours earlier.
02:09 They've been offended by this group of embittered old Blair MPs stirring up all these accusations of anti-Semitism.
02:15 Corbyn commissioned an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, led by Baris Deshami Chakrabarti,
02:21 but it reportedly found no evidence of systemic anti-Semitism, but that there was occasionally a toxic atmosphere.
02:28 Though in December 2020, a report by the UK's human rights watchdog found Labour to be responsible
02:34 for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination during Corbyn's four and a half years as party leader.
02:41 More recently, Diane Abbott was suspended from the party last year for suggesting in a letter to the Observer
02:46 that Irish people, Jewish people and travellers are not all their lives subject to racism.
02:51 Today, the Conservative Party gave their reaction to comments Mr Ali and Mr Jones allegedly made at the gathering.
02:57 It does show, I'm afraid to say, that quite serious anti-Semitism still pervades the ranks of the Labour Party
03:05 and it does show a lack of decisiveness by their leadership because they were told about it on Saturday
03:09 and it took nearly 72 hours to decide that wasn't acceptable.
03:12 The upcoming by-elections will be a test of Sakhir Starmer's political judgement,
03:17 but many will be asking how candidates that have made inappropriate comments about Israel-Gaza
03:22 can be selected in the first place.
03:24 [MUSIC PLAYING]