The Labor leader, Keir Starmer, boasted, ahead of the upcoming British general elections, of having eradicated the latent anti-Semitism in the party and having gotten rid of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, and the ideological burden of the radical left. But the ghosts have reappeared at the most inopportune moment.
The Labor candidate for the vacant seat for Rochdale (a town near Manchester with a 30% Muslim population) could not think of any other imprudence than to endorse the conspiracy theory – present on social networks – that Israel itself organized the massacre. on October 7 in order to have a pretext to invade Gaza and carry out a full-blown attack.
Thirty-six hours are an eternity in politics, and during that time Starmer kept Azhar Ali as a candidate for deputy in the by-election of the 29th, arguing that he had been unhappy, repented and asked for forgiveness. Only to finally execute one of his famous reversing maneuvers. He has earned a reputation as a man of indecisiveness, of fluctuating convictions, who always goes where the current takes him.
In this way, Labor will be left without a seat that was its own and had in its pocket, with a clear majority, in a working class district in the north of England. The candidate registration period is now closed, the ballots are printed, and Ali’s name appears next to the party’s logo and red rose. He could still win, because many voters don’t follow the news and support a party rather than an individual, but in any case he has been suspended, would have to sit in the Commons as an independent, and the position would only last until the election. general, when it will be back in contention. The big beneficiary could be the pro-Islamic leftist radical George Galloway.
Despite Labor enjoying a twenty-point lead in the polls which – if confirmed – would translate into an absolute majority, the last few days have been a disaster for Starmer. To combat conservative criticism that he is going to spend money that does not exist, he has renounced the most ambitious project he had, the star of the Labor manifesto: the annual investment of 30,000 million euros in green energy to decarbonize the country and generate “ecological investments”. sustainable”.
In view of all this, it is more important than ever for Labor to wrest two seats from the Conservatives that are up for grabs tomorrow, and thus silence criticism, both internal and external, that Starmer is too timid, erring on the side of caution. , and when he comes to power he will have his hands tied and will lack a mandate to carry out the economic and fiscal revolution that the country needs.
The Jewish electorate contributed to Boris Johnson’s majority in 2019, staying at home or voting Tory in reaction to Corbyn’s tolerance of an anti-Semitic element within Labor that is partly real, and partly high criticism of the Israeli State and Government to the category of anti-Semitism. But now Starmer has swung the pendulum to the other side; He initially considered it legitimate for Tel Aviv to cut off water and electricity to Gaza after the 7-O attacks, and runs the risk of suffering a bite in the Muslim vote that could translate into the loss of a handful of seats.
While Starmer plays coy, Conservative Foreign Secretary David Cameron has suggested that the UK could give formal and diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state, including at the UN, not as a result of peace agreements but earlier, during negotiations. “The last thirty years are the story of a failure on the part of Israel, because it has not known how to achieve security for its citizens,” said the head of the Foreign Office, a free verse within the Government.
Three protesters who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration with images of paragliders on their t-shirts have been found guilty of supporting a terrorist organization.
