Sir Keir Starmer claims he took ‘decisive action’ over Rochdale by-election candidate
Sir Keir Starmer has claimed he took “decisive action” in withdrawing support from Labour’s candidate for the Rochdale by-election.
Azhar Ali was suspended by the party on Monday after it emerged he had allegedly made antisemitic remarks at a party meeting.
Shadow ministers initially stood by the councillor after his comments were published by the Mail on Sunday – saying Israel had deliberately allowed the Hamas atrocity to take place in order to give it the “green light” to invade Gaza – condemning the words but saying he had offered a full apology.
But when further remarks from Mr Ali came to light on Tuesday night – namely him blaming “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 – the party withdrew its support.
Politics live: Starmer: ‘Appalling’ comments made it ‘necessary’ to drop Ali
Speaking to reporters for the first time since the decision, Sir Keir said: “I took decisive action. It is a huge thing to withdraw support for a Labour candidate during the course of a by-election.
“It is a tough decision, a necessary decision, but when I say the Labour Party has changed under my leadership, I mean it.”
He described the comments made by Mr Ali as “appalling”, but doubled down on his actions, saying: “It is virtually unprecedented to withdraw support for a candidate in the way that I withdrew support for this candidate yesterday.
“That’s what a changed Labour Party is all about.”
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Sir Keir added: “I set out four years ago to tear antisemitism out of the Labour Party. It is the first thing I said I’d do as Labour leader, to change our party.
“I have taken a series of decisions along those lines, ruthlessly changing our party, and it has made no difference to me where someone stands in the Labour Party.
“The change I brought about is a Labour Party that is now back in the service of working people.”
Azhar Ali had been selected as Labour’s candidate for Rochdale before the alleged remarks came to light
Mr Ali led the Labour group on Lancashire County Council before being selected as a candidate for the Rochdale by-election, set for 29 February.
He was hoping to replace Labour stalwart Sir Tony Lloyd, who died in January, but he is now understood to have been suspended from the party pending an investigation.
Although Labour has now withdrawn its support for Mr Ali, it is too late for his name to be removed from the ballot paper as the party’s candidate.
If he won the contest, Labour has said he would sit as an independent MP.
The government attacked Sir Keir for the delay in removing support from the candidate, with housing minister Lee Rowley saying the incident “shows the Labour Party is in a real mess”.
He told Sky News’ Breakfast With Kay Burley: “It is just extraordinary to see some of the things that are coming out now, some of the conspiracy theories.
“It is showing that the Labour Party really hasn’t got a grip on this, that it is a party which has not changed [and] a party which will say anything to win government.”
But Lord Mann, a former Labour MP who advises the government on tackling antisemitism, praised the leadership for a “bold and brave decision”, to withdraw support and said the Jewish community would “take great comfort in the fact that Keir Starmer has been prepared to do it”.
A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said: “Comments in the public domain were already unacceptable.
“Hamas’s terrorist atrocities on 7th October were an act of unspeakable evil. The Liberal Democrats are calling for an immediate bilateral ceasefire.”
See below the full list of candidates and the political parties they represent:
Azhar Ali, (listed as Labour Party, but now removed as its candidate)
Mark Coleman, Independent
Simon Danczuk, Reform UK
Iain Donaldson, Liberal Democrats
Paul Ellison, The Conservative Party Candidate
George Galloway, Workers’ Party of Britain
Michael Howarth, Independent
William Howarth, Independent
Guy Otten, Green Party
Ravin Subortna, The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
David Tully, Independent
Zoe Ball is leaving her BBC Radio 2 breakfast show after six years.
The 53-year-old, who recently lost her mother to cancer, will present her last show on Friday, 20 December.
Ball leaves Wogan House with her replacement, Scott Mills. Pic: PA
She said she was leaving to focus on family, but will remain part of the Radio 2 team and will give further details next year.
Announcing the news on her Tuesday show, she said: “After six years of fun times alongside you all on the breakfast show, I’ve decided it’s time to step away from the early alarm call and start a new chapter.
“You know I think the world of you all, listeners, and it truly has been such a privilege to share the mornings with you, to go through life’s little ups and downs, we got through the lockdown together, didn’t we?
“We’ve shared a hell of a lot, the good times, the tough times, there’s been a lot of laughter. And I am going to miss you cats.”
Scott Mills will replace Ball on the breakfast show following her departure next month.
“Zoe and I have been such good friends now for over 25 years and have spent much of that time as part of the same radio family here at Radio 2 and also on Radio 1,” he said.
“She’s done an incredible job on this show over the past six years, and I am beyond excited to be handed the baton.”
Hugging outside the BBC building on the day of the announcement, Ball said she was “really chuffed for my mate and really excited about it”.
Ball was the first female host of both the BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows, starting at the Radio 1 breakfast show in 1998, and taking over her current Radio 2 role from Chris Evans in 2020 after he left the show.
She took a break from hosting her show over the summer, returning in September.
Ahead of her stint in radio, Ball – who is the daughter of children’s presenter Johnny Ball – co-hosted the BBC’s Saturday morning children’s magazine show Live & Kicking alongside Jamie Theakston for three years from 1996.
She has two children, Woody and Nelly, with her ex-husband, DJ and musician Norman Cook, known professionally as Fatboy Slim.
Ball said in her announcement her last show towards the end of December will be “just in time for Christmas with plenty of fun and shenanigans”.
“While I’m stepping away from the Breakfast Show, I’m not disappearing entirely – I’ll still be a part of the Radio 2 family, with more news in the New Year,” she added.
“I’m excited to embrace my next chapter, including being a mum in the mornings, and I can’t wait to tune in on the school run!”
Helen Thomas, head of Radio 2, said: “Zoe has woken up the nation on Radio 2 with incredible warmth, wit and so much joy since January 2019, and I’d like to thank her for approaching each show with as much vim and vigour as if it were her first. I’m thrilled that she’ll remain an important part of the Radio 2 family.”
Mills, 51, got his first presenting role aged just 16 for a local station in Hampshire, and went on to present in Bristol and Manchester, before joining BBC Radio 1 in 1998.
He’s previously worked as a cover presenter on Radio 2, but this is his first permanent role on the station.
UK
More prisoners are being transferred to less secure jails to tackle overcrowding crisis, Sky News understands
The prison service is starting to recategorise the security risk of offenders to ease capacity pressures, Sky News understands.
It involves lowering or reconsidering the threshold of certain offenders to move them from the closed prison estate (category A to C) to the open estate (category D) because there are more free cell spaces there.
Examples of this could include discounting adjudications – formal hearings when a prisoner is accused of breaking the rules – for certain offenders, so they don’t act as official reasons not to transport them to a lower-security jail.
Prisoners are also categorised according to an Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) status. There are different levels – basic, standard and enhanced – based on how they keep to the rules or display a commitment to rehabilitation.
Usually ‘enhanced’ prisoners take part in meaningful activity – employment and training – making them eligible among other factors, to be transferred to the open estate.
Insiders suggest this system in England and Wales is being rejigged so that greater numbers of ‘standard’ prisoners can transfer, whereas before it would more typically be those with ‘enhanced’ status.
Open prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend time on day release away from the prison on license conditions to carry out work or education.
The aim is to help reintegrate them back into society once they leave. As offenders near the end of their sentence, they are housed in open prisons.
Many of those released as part of the early release scheme in October after serving 40% of their sentence were freed from open prisons.
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Overcrowding in UK prisons
They were the second tranche of offenders freed as part of this scheme, and had been sentenced to five years or more.
Despite early release measures, prisons are still battling a chronic overcrowding crisis. The male estate is almost full, operating at around 97% capacity.
Read more from Sky News:
Find out what it’s really like inside prison?
Prison recalls soar as justice system struggles
Campaigners demand IPP sentences are scrapped
Sky News understands there continue to be particular pinch points across the country.
Southwest England struggled over the weekend with three space-related ‘lockouts’ – which means prisoners are held in police suites or transferred to other jails because there is no space.
One inmate is believed to have been transported from Exeter to Cardiff.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new government inherited a prison system on the point of collapse. We took the necessary action to stop our prisons from overflowing and to protect the public.
“This is not a new scheme. Only less-serious offenders who meet a strict criteria are eligible, and the Prison Service can exclude anyone who can’t be managed safely in a category D prison.”
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