UK's Rochdale candidate loses Labour Party backing over antisemitic remarks but remains on ballot

Britain’s opposition Labour Party reversed course on Monday, deciding to pull support for Rochdale candidate Azhar Ali after more comments deriding Israel and Jews came to light.

The Labour Party initially spent days defending Azhar Ali as a candidate in a Feb. 29 special election for the House of Commons seat representing Rochdale, a constituency in northwest England, after the Daily Mail published remarks he made during a local party meeting last year claiming Israel allowed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack to happen as a pretext to invade Gaza.

Ali, who was selected as the Labour candidate last month, apologized, and senior Labour figures called the comments "totally unacceptable," but the party did not immediately suspend him. After increasing pressure, however, Labour said Monday that while it was too late to replace Ali on the ballot, the party had "withdrawn its support" for him.

"We understand that these are highly unusual circumstances, but it is vital that any candidate put forward by Labour fully represents its aims and values," the party said in a statement.

The Daily Mail published a longer recording Monday in which Ali is allegedly heard blaming "people in the media from certain Jewish quarters" for Andy McDonald's suspension last year.

The Labour Party suspended McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough, after he used the phrase "from the river and the sea," which calls for the erasure of the Jewish state, in a speech at a pro-Palestinian rally, the BBC reported. The man believed to be Ali on the recording goes on to insist Israel plotted to "get rid of [Palestinians] from Gaza" and "grab" the land.

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Ali will still remain on the