Labour has withdrawn its support for Azhar Ali, its candidate for this month’s Rochdale byelection, in the wake of controversial comments he made about the 7 October attacks on Israel.
In line with electoral law, Labour cannot replace Ali with another candidate because the deadline passed on 2 February. He will stand as a Labour candidate on the ballot paper, but if elected he will not hold the party whip and will sit as an independent MP.
Labour sources said that campaigners in Rochdale were told to stop leafleting and social media activity on Ali’s behalf at 5.30pm on Monday – an instruction that came from party HQ.
Good. Pity it’s too late to replace him.
Yes, it’s all a bit of mess - apparently the Green candidate has been dropped by their party too. It feels like this should be changed in the law - I know it’s their to stop shenanigans but it needs to be more flexible.
All that really needs to happen is that parties need to get better at vetting their candidates.
If the media can find these comments, why can’t the apparatchiks in the party who are paid to find them? Or if they did find them, why did they not flag them up?