Labour candidate apologises after saying Israel “allowed” Hamas attack

Labour candidate, Azhar Ali, has apologised after he said that Israel had "allowed" the deadly attack by Hamas on October 7 in order to justify their offensive into Palestine.

Ali has since said that his comments had been "deeply offensive, ignorant, and false". Labour's national campaign coordinator, Pat McFadden, said that Ali's comments "were completely wrong" and did not represent the party's view.

The Conservative party have called for Labour to revoke Ali's party membership, and suspend their by-election campaign. Labour have said that Ali will remain their candidate in the Rochdale by-election.

In the recording, Ali is alleged to have said: "The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel 10 days earlier... Americans warned them a day before [that] there's something happening... They deliberately took the security off, they allowed... that massacre that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want."

Israeli authorities have faced criticism for security failings and reports have emerged that intelligence services were warned by Egypt of potential violence in the days leading up to the attack. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the reports as "absolutely false".

In a statement, Ali said: "I apologise unreservedly to the Jewish community for my comments which were deeply offensive, ignorant, and false.

"Hamas' horrific terror attack was the responsibility of Hamas alone, and they are still holding hostages who must be released."

He went on to say that October 7 had been "the greatest loss of Jewish life in a single day since the Holocaust, and Jews in the UK and across the world are living in fear of rising antisemitism".

Their has been a history of allegations of antisemitism in the Labour party and in 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched an inquiry into the potential discrimination of Jewish people by Labour. In 2020, they concluded the party was "responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination".

Tory Chairman, Richard Holden responded to Ali's comments by urging Sir Kier Starmer to "immediately remove Mr Ali's Labour membership and suspend Labour's campaign" ahead of the by-election on 29 February.

He said: "Time after time, Sir Keir Starmer says that he's changed Labour. Time after time we're seeing that simply isn't true."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it would have called on Labour to replace Mr Ali as a by-election candidate had it not been too late to do so.

Describing his earlier comments as "disgraceful and unforgivable", the board said: "It is clear to us that Mr Ali is not apologising out of a genuine sense of remorse.

"Despite what he says in his apology, we do not see how we could possibly engage with him at this time, and we believe other leading Jewish communal groups will feel similarly".