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Sir Keir Starmer is facing growing pressure to overhaul the vetting of potential Labour MPs, as he seeks to contain the spiralling fallout from the suspension of two candidates this week.
Mike Katz, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, urged the Labour leader to revisit the due diligence processes that underpin candidate approval as the party was engulfed by a row over alleged antisemitism.
“We need to recognise that post October 7, there’s been a quantum change in the amount of conspiracy theories and misinformation floating around social media,” Katz told the Financial Times, referring to the Hamas attacks on Israel.
“It’s incredibly divisive and we need to ensure these haven’t been picked up or propagated by people who want to, or do, represent Labour,” he added.
Other Labour insiders share the view that tighter vetting is required. They argue that the October 7 attacks and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, which have fuelled both antisemitism and Islamophobia, have had a radicalising effect on some party activists.
On Tuesday, Labour suspended former MP Graham Jones, the party’s candidate for Hyndburn in north-west England, over his leaked comments calling for Britons fighting for the military of “fucking Israel” to be “locked up”.
It came just a day after Starmer decided to drop Azhar Ali as the party’s candidate in an upcoming by-election in Rochdale, another constituency in north-west England, over leaked comments from the same event last October.
Ali claimed Israel had allowed Hamas to attack the Jewish state on October 7 as a pretext for the invasion of Gaza.
Starmer has faced mounting criticism over his handling of the debacle involving his party’s candidate in Rochdale, having initially defended Ali after he apologised.
Labour’s decision to withdraw support came after further leaked remarks by Ali were published by the Daily Mail, in which he blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” for fuelling criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP.
John Healey, Labour’s shadow defence secretary, insisted there was already a robust vetting procedure for candidates. “There certainly are strong checks, the due diligence process, as part of selecting Labour candidates,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday.
“But you can’t see everything everywhere. What’s important is that if new information comes to light, as in this case, we will act to investigate, we will act to block those who are not fit to serve as MPs,” he added.
Healey said not everyone in Labour was a “saint” but called for the party to be judged on its response to complaints and allegations.
He insisted Starmer was “deeply aware” that restoring and retaining the trust of the Jewish community was a constant process. The Labour leader had pledged to root out antisemitism from the party’s ranks in 2020 when he took over from the far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was heavily criticised for his handling of allegations of antisemitic abuse.
Katz has urged Labour to suspend any party members who were present at the community meeting in Rochdale last October and heard the leaked remarks made by Ali and Jones but did not call out or report them.
