The left-wing Labour Party suspended its second parliamentary candidate in as many days after it was claimed that Graham Jones had called for UK citizens who fought for Israel to be jailed, and referred to the Jewish state as “fucking Israel”.
Graham Jones, the former Labour MP for Hyndburn and who was backed by the party to run in the next general election to reclaim his old seat, has been put on administrative suspension from the party after the Westminster gossip blog Guido Fawkes obtained allegedly antisemitic recordings from the Labour candidate speaking to Azhar Ali, who the party withdrew their support from on Monday over antisemitic comments of his own.
According to Guido, Jones had asserted that Britons who volunteered to fight for the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) against Hamas terrorists “should be locked up”, while falsely wrongly that it would be illegal for UK citizens to fight on behalf of Israel. This is not the case, however, given that the IDF is a recognised armed force, and therefore British nationals are allowed to volunteer. Israel, for its part, does not prohibit foreign citizens from serving in the IDF.
During the meeting of Labour activists, which occurred shortly after the October 7th Islamist terror attacks on Israel, Jones was also alleged to have branded the Jewish state as “fucking Israel”.
Hours after the comments were published, the Labour Party suspended Jones, Sky News reported.
Jones allegedly made the comments during the same meeting in Lancashire, in which Labour Party Councillor Azhar Ali was recorded claiming that Israel had given the “green light” to the October 7th Hamas terror attacks and had intentionally allowed its citizens to be slaughtered and taken hostage by the Islamist Palestinian group.
While the party initially appeared set to defend Ali, who was their parliamentary candidate for Rochdale — a northern English city with a large Muslim population — the party ultimately withdrew its support from Ali on Monday. The decision came as the Daily Mail claimed to have obtained more antisemitic comments from the councillor.
According to the paper, Ali blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” for stoking criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP and had stated that he believed Israel was planning to “get rid of [Palestinians] from Gaza” to “grab” the land.
The suspension of two parliamentary candidates comes just two weeks after a sitting Labour MP, Kate Osamor, was also suspended from the party after she suggested that Holocaust Memorial Day should also be used to highlight what she termed as a “genocide” in Gaza, a label that Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer has rejected in terms of Israel’s military response to the October 7th terror attacks.
Commenting on the suspension of her opponent, Conservative MP for Hyndburn, Sara Britcliffe said: “At a time of increasing community tensions, it is the responsibility of all of us in politics to be careful with the language we use.
“We need immediate answers from those seeking to represent Hyndburn about whether they challenged Mr Ali. Creating community cohesion is essential and this quite frankly does the complete opposite. This is a clear example that the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer has not changed at all.”