Rochdale row shows Labour has much work to do on anti-Semitism, says former MP
The furore surrounding the Rochdale by-election shows that the Labour Party still has much work to do in rooting out anti-Semitism from within its ranks, says a former Black Country MP.
Ian Austin, Labour MP for Dudley North from 2005-2019, described the party's candidate Azhar Ali as a 'mad conspiracy theorist' following his suggestion that Israel allowed the October 7 terror attacks to justify its war in Gaza.
Labour has now removed the party's backing for Mr Ali, but the action came to late to prevent him from standing as a Labour candidate in the election on February 29.
Lord Austin, who now sits as an independent in the House of Lords, said he felt sorry for the people of the town who faced having either Mr Ali or veteran left-winger George Galloway as their MP.
"Pity the people of Rochdale who face a choice at the by-election later this month between veteran extremist George Galloway and the mad conspiracy theorist Azhar Ali who is standing for Labour," he said.
"Talk about a choice between the lesser of two evils. Yet Rochdale will have to go to the polls and, realistically, the only two people who can win are the appalling Galloway and the disgraceful Ali."
Lord Austin said Mr Galloway had been expelled from the Labour Party by Tony Blair for calling on British troops to 'refuse to obey illegal orders' during the war in Iraq.
"He praised Arab dictators and called the collapse of the Soviet Union 'the biggest catastrophe of my life'," he said. "He praised Arab dictators and called the collapse of the Soviet Union 'the biggest catastrophe of my life'."
