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]
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