Unfair to draw wider conclusions from candidate’s Israel claims: shadow minister
A shadow minister has insisted it would be “unfair” to conclude there is a problem with Labour in Rochdale amid criticism of remarks about Israel made by the party’s constituency candidate.
Nick Thomas-Symonds said he believed that Azhar Ali, who claimed the country had allowed Hamas to inflict its October 7 attack, had fallen “for an online conspiracy theory.”
The Labour hopeful has apologised after he was recorded suggesting in a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party that Israel had taken the assault as a pretext to invade Gaza.
It was put to Mr Thomas-Symonds
