The Tories are too weak to capitalise on Labour’s failings

The polls suggest that Labour is in line for a general election victory later this year which could match or even exceed Tony Blair’s landslide of 1997. Yet the party exudes none of the confidence and maintains none of the self-discipline which it did 27 years ago. On the contrary, were the Conservatives not in an even worse state themselves, Keir Starmer’s party could well be in deep trouble.

For Labour to contrive to lose a safe seat in the current circumstances is remarkable. But that is exactly what the party has done with its failure to vet properly Azhar Ali, the candidate chosen to fight the Rochdale by-election following the death of the sitting MP Tony Lloyd. Comments made by Ali shortly after the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israel last year were indefensible. His claim, made openly at a Labour party meeting, that the Israeli government knew of the coming attacks but tolerated them so as to have a pretext to attack Gaza, is the stuff of conspiracy theory, made all the more offensive given how many Israeli citizens were killed in the attacks.

Not only did the party fail to pick up on Ali’s comments before selecting him to fight the seat – Starmer then hesitated before disowning him as the Labour candidate. Ali cannot be replaced on the ballot paper because nominations have closed.

This indecisive leadership – Starmer prevaricated for long enough for some of his colleagues to end up defending Ali – has brought protest from within the Labour party. Not so much from members shocked at what Ali had said, as from people aggrieved that Starmer had moved to expel left-wing figures for making anti-Semitic remarks.

The Rochdale fiasco comes soon after Starmer abandoning his promise to spend £28 billion a year on green investment.