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Labour has withdrawn its support for Rochdale by-election candidate Azhar Ali following criticism of remarks he made about Israel.

However, he will still appear on the ballot as the party’s candidate on Thursday 29 February.

Politics latest: Labour in ‘absolute mess’ over by-election

So, what happened and why can’t he be replaced?

Mr Ali’s candidacy for the by-election was thrown into the spotlight after reports he told a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party that Israel deliberately allowed the Hamas 7 October attacks to take place in order to give it the “green light” to invade Gaza.

He issued an “unreserved” apology for the “deeply offensive, ignorant and false” remarks and Labour initially stood by him, saying he had “fallen for a conspiracy theory”.

But less than 48 hours later, further comments came to light and Labour withdrew support for the candidate.

A report in the Daily Mail on Monday evening claimed Mr Ali blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” for fuelling criticism of a pro-Palestinian Labour MP, as well as claiming Israel planned to “get rid of [Palestinians] from Gaza” and “grab” some of the land.

A party spokesperson said: “Following new information about further comments made by Azhar Ali coming to light today, the Labour Party has withdrawn its support for Azhar Ali as our candidate in the Rochdale by-election.”

Labour acknowledged the circumstances were “highly unusual”.

The spokesperson added: “Given that nominations have now closed, Azhar Ali cannot be replaced as the candidate.”

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‘Tremendous task to rebuild trust’

Why can’t Labour replace Ali?

According to Electoral Commission rules, a candidate can only pull out of a race if they submit a withdrawal notice by the deadline for withdrawals (which is by 4pm, 19 working days before the poll).

The deadline for the Rochdale by-election passed on 2 February.

That means Mr Ali will appear on the ballot paper as the Labour candidate when voters go to the polls.

What happens if Ali wins?

However, if Mr Ali wins the by-election, he will not become a Labour MP. Instead, he will sit as an independent.

That’s because by withdrawing support, Labour has effectively removed the whip were he to be selected as the constituency’s next MP.

Having the whip withdrawn is a severe punishment which means you are kicked out of the parliamentary party.

Other former Labour MPs this has happened to include former party leader Jeremy Corbyn and veteran left-wing MP Diane Abbott.

Both of those cases were to do with rows over antisemitism, which Sir Keir Starmer has promised to tear out of his party following the controversies that dogged the Corbyn era.

Labour candidate for Rochdale, Azhar Ali, is joined by Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham (right) in Rochdale as he launches his campaign for the up-coming Rochdale.
Pic: PA
Image:
Azhar Ali at his campaign launch event. Pic: PA

Why is there a by-election and who else is standing?

The decision to withdraw backing for Mr Ali will come as a blow to Labour, which had hoped to retain the seat following the death last month of veteran sitting MP Sir Tony Lloyd.

It also means Labour will need to find a new candidate to contest the seat at the upcoming general election.

Also running in Rochdale are former Labour MP Simon Danczuk, now the Reform Party candidate, and George Galloway, of the Workers Party of Britain, who is campaigning against Labour’s stance on Gaza.

What questions remain for Sir Keir Starmer?

The party leadership is being pressed on why Mr Ali was not immediately suspended after the initial comments emerged.

Labour recently suspended MP Kate Osamor after she appeared to say the Gaza war should be remembered as genocide on Holocaust Memorial Day.

And Sir Keir has repeatedly promised to tear antisemitism out “by its roots” in Labour.

Read more:
Starmer’s biggest crisis – and there may be worse to come

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‘I ‘will rip antisemitism out’

A spokesperson for the Campaign Against Antisemitism said that rather than appearing as a principled decision, Labour’s withdrawal of support “looks as expedient as the failed attempt to defend him”.

Meanwhile, Martin Forde KC, who led a review into the party’s culture under Mr Corbyn, said Labour MPs feel there has been a “disparity in treatment” of allegations of antisemitism within the party.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “One does have to question how such individuals are selected in the first place, and also the disparity in treatment, because one of the things that concerned us when we talked about weaponisation was certainly the perception that antisemitism was along factional lines.”

How are candidates selected?

Mr Ali, the leader of Lancashire County Council’s Labour group, was chosen by local party members last month after making it on to the candidate shortlist with two other people – political journalist Paul Waugh and Wigan councillor Nazia Rehman.

Lord Mann, the government’s antisemitism adviser and a former Labour MP, told Sky News the filters in place during Labour’s selection process were “clearly not good enough” and Sir Keir will likely be “fuming”.

He added that “heads may roll” over the decision to shortlist Mr Ali, and the move to withdraw support was “bold and brave”.

He said this has “never happened before” in a by-election, adding: “I think the Jewish community, as it reflects on this, will take great comfort in the fact that Keir Starmer has been prepared to do it. It’s certainly a bold move.”

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after ‘prolific’ rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after 'prolific' rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.

The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.

Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.

“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
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Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth

Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.

Read more: How a student described as ‘smart and charming’ was unmasked as a prolific sexual predator

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He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.

“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.

“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”

***ONLY USE IF HE IS CONVICTED OF AT LEAST TWO RAPES***It is feared Zou may have carried out dozens more sex crimes. Pic: Met Police
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Pic: Met Police

Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.

He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.

Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

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Moment police arrest rapist student

Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.

“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.

“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.

“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”

Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”

Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”

The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.

An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.

Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.

A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.

Location of Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich, where 11-year-old girl Kaliyah Coa went into the River Thames on 31/03
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Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames

Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.

He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.

He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”

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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”

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On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.

When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.

Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.

Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.

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Planning reforms to ‘rewire the system’ and get Britain building – all while protecting wildlife

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Planning reforms to 'rewire the system' and get Britain building - all while protecting wildlife

Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment. 

A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.

But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.

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These lie at the centre of the controversy of a £120m bat tunnel – the shed in Aylesbury which protects a rare breed from future high speed trains.

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The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.

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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.

Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.

The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.

“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.

“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”

Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.

It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.

“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”

The review will mean:

• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion

• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves

• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth

Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.

“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”

However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.

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