The UK’s Labour Party has suspended a parliamentary candidate in coming elections over his anti-Israel remarks, less than a day after pulling its support for another candidate who was dropped for the same reason.
Graham Jones, who is running to keep his seat in Hyndburn, has been suspended, local media said Tuesday.
According to the BBC, Jones is also facing an investigation.
The move came after the Guido Fawkes website published a recording from a meeting of Labour activists in the northern England county of Lancashire during which Jones said: “I’m sure when [world leaders] go home, like me, pardon my French [they say] ‘fucking Israel’ again.”
According to the outlet, Jones repeatedly used the term about Israel and also incorrectly asserted that British people who serve in the Israel Defense Forces are breaking the law.
“No British person should be fighting for any other country at all, full stop,” he is heard saying in the recording. “It is against the law and you should be locked up.”
His remarks came amid an ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip that began when the Palestinian terror group carried out a devastating October 7 cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, amid horrific atrocities of gang rape, torture and mutilation. The thousands of terrorists who invaded also abducted 253 people of all ages to the Palestinian enclave. Over half remain hostages.
Some of those killed or abducted in the attack were dual Israeli-British citizens, including serving soldiers in the IDF.
The Jewish Labour Movement put out a statement saying, “Graham Jones’s comments about British-Israeli Jews are appalling and unacceptable within the Labour Party” and calling on the party to withdraw its support.
In a follow-up statement, it said, “We are pleased that Labour has swiftly suspended Jones, pending further action.”
Responding to Jones’s assertion that it is illegal for British subjects to serve in other militaries, Guido reported a statement from UK Minister of State for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell who said: “The UK recognizes the right of British nationals with additional nationalities to serve in the legitimately recognized armed forces of the country of their other nationalities.”
“The Israel Defense Force is a recognized armed force and British nationals are both able to volunteer into the Israel Defense Force and eligible for national service.”
One of those who attended the same meeting as Jones was Labour candidate Azhar Ali. Over the weekend a recording emerged of him speaking at the gathering in which he suggested that Israel deliberately allowed Hamas to attack on October 7 in order to justify invading Gaza.
Those remarks prompted Labour leader Keir Starmer to drop the party’s support for Ali in the February 29 election.
It was not clear from reports when the meeting attended by Jones and Ali was held, but it was apparently after the war started.
Starmer has made tackling antisemitism within Labour’s ranks a key mission since he became its leader nearly four years ago.
The party, now on course to win a general election due later this year, saw a spate of incidents under former left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.
A landmark October 2020 report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission ruled that Labour under Corbyn had broken the law in its “inexcusable” handling of complaints.
The period saw Jewish members and lawmakers leave the party in droves as criticism of Israel and Zionism veered into toxic antisemitism from Corbyn supporters.
The UK equalities watchdog last year removed Labour from two years of special supervision over the issue.
Meanwhile, a senior lawmaker from the ruling Conservative party was forced to call for police protection after a pro-Palestinian crowd surrounded his home on Tuesday night.
Some 100 protesters turned up at the home of former Middle East minister Tobias Ellwood after his address was shared on Facebook, the Daily Mail reported.
Ellwood, the member for Bournemouth East, told Sky News that he and his children were indoors at the time.
Activists from the Palestine Solidarity Movement chanted “ceasefire” and “free Palestine” and held up signs accusing Ellwood of being “complicit in genocide,” references to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
According to the Daily Mail report, one of the protest leaders was Corrie Drew, who ran against Ellwood in 2019 as a candidate for Labour. Drew, described in the report as a committed supporter of Corbyn, later posted to social media, “Tonight, outside Tobias Ellwood’s house 100 of us gathered for an emergency protest after the Israeli attacks on Rafah.”
A Dorset Police spokesperson said in a statement that “officers attended the scene and liaised with the organizers to ensure people could exercise their right to protest legally and safely without causing significant or ongoing serious public disorder, serious damage or serious disruption to the community.”
The officer said no arrests were made.
Housing Minister Lee Rowley told Sky News the incident was “terrible” and accused the protesters of “bullying” and making an “attempt to intimidate” Ellwood.