The Labour Party has suspended one of its election candidates who allegedly referred to “f***ing Israel” at a meeting of activists, Sky News understands.
Graham Jones has been administratively suspended from the party pending investigation and was called in for an interview this evening after his comments were revealed by the website Guido Fawkes.
Mr Jones, the former Labour MP for Hyndburn who lost his seat in 2019 and is seeking to stand again, is alleged to have said that UK citizens who volunteer to fight for the Israeli Defence Forces “should be locked up” and that it was “illegal” for them to fight for Israel, according to the website Guido Fawkes.
He allegedly made the comments at the same meeting at which remarks were made by the now-dropped Labour candidate for the Rochdale by-election Azhar Ali.
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One person present at the meeting said that during his remarks Mr Jones said: “People should put Britain first and stop putting other countries first.”
It is understood that the meeting took place in the weeks shortly after the October 7 attacks and that many of those attending were Muslims.
Labour was forced to disown Mr Ali after the comments emerged from the meeting of activists in which he claimed Israel allowed the Hamas atrocity of 7 October to happen in order to give it the “green light” to invade Gaza.
The party then chose to withdraw support for Mr Ali after further comments were published by the Daily Mail in which he allegedly 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.
