Starmer ‘failing to act against councillors who backed axed Rochdale candidate’
Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of failing to take action against Labour councillors who supported a parliamentary candidate suspended from the party for anti-Semitic comments.
The Conservatives claimed there were “systemic” issues in the Labour Party in Pendle, Lancashire, after it emerged a number of councillors had supported Azhar Ali, who had been candidate for the Rochdale by-election, or shared controversial material about Israel online.
At the start of this month, The Telegraph revealed that Labour was investigating Mohammed Iqbal, one of the party’s councillors in the Lancashire district.
He had been filmed wearing a red rosette in the company of Mr Ali outside a polling station on the day of the Rochdale by-election.
Labour had suspended Mr Ali and officially withdrew all support from his election campaign after a recording surfaced of him claiming Israel had “allowed” the Oct 7 Hamas attacks, and railing against “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters”.
The by-election was won by George Galloway, of the Workers Party of Britain.
The Telegraph can now disclose that Faraz Ahmad, another Labour councillor in Pendle, also appeared to be supporting Mr Ali on the day of the by-election.
Mr Ahmad was caught on camera in a separate video standing with Mr Ali outside the same polling station. He did not respond to repeated requests from The Telegraph to explain his presence with the candidate.
It has also emerged that three other Labour councillors in Pendle have shared controversial material relating to Israel online.
Yvonne Tennant, Labour’s councillor in the Marsden and Southfield ward, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that she “totally” agreed that the comments which resulted in Mr Ali’s suspension were “not anti-Semitic” but “pro-Palestine”.
Ms Tennant also liked a tweet that compared Britons fighting in the Israel Defense Forces to Shamima Begum joining Islamic State.
In 2021, Mohammad Hanif, a councillor in the Brierfield West and Reedley ward, posted a graphic on Facebook calling for holidaymakers to boycott Dubai because the UAE was supposedly “buying Palestinian property and land secretly on behalf of Israeli settlers”.
The image included the Star of David depicted on a shadow of Dubai’s Burj Al Arab building.
Ruby Anwar, another councillor, posted a video on Facebook in December remarking that there were “no signs of brutality” when Israeli hostages were freed by Hamas and saying: “Never have I ever seen hostages leave their captors like this before.”
Ms Anwar also shared a video of a protest she attended in November, in which demonstrators are heard chanting “From the river to the sea”. In the past, Labour has suspended elected representatives for using the controversial slogan.
None of the councillors responded to The Telegraph’s requests for comment.
On Saturday, Labour said it was looking into the information. A spokesman said: “The Labour Party treats all complaints seriously, and they are assessed in accordance with our rules and procedures.”
The party confirmed that all the individuals continued to sit as Labour councillors.
The Tories accused Labour, which was informed of the incident involving Mr Iqbal more than two weeks ago and those relating to the other councillors a week ago, of dragging its feet.
Richard Holden, the Tory chairman, said: “The fact that Sir Keir is still to take action… tells you all you need to know about the so-called changed Labour party, where nothing is different from the previous leadership when Sir Keir fought to make [Jeremy] Corbyn prime minister twice.
“If Sir Keir cared about dealing with this rather than paying lip service to it, he would immediately suspend and investigate the entire constituency party, as clearly there is a systemic issue that shows they’re not fit for public office.”
