The Rochdale by-election is just days away and, despite the controversy surrounding his comments on the Israel-Hamas conflict, Azhar Ali still stands a good chance of being elected.
But who is he and what does he stand for?
Ali started his political career as the leader of the Students Union at Nelson and Colne College and later became the first British Asian to be appointed chairman of a UK regional assembly (the Northwest Regional Assembly).
He joined the Pendle Council aged 24 and later became the council leader from 2000-2003.
Due to the death of the previous Rochdale MP, Sir Tony Lloyd, on 17 January, a by-election for the Rochdale seat was called and the Labour party selected Ali as their candidate, following a vote by party members on 27 January.
However, Ali has recently made headlines after comments that he made regarding the ongoing Israeli–Hamas war were labelled Anti-Semitic.
On 10 February, MailOnline published an article which claims that the Labour candidate had said that Israel deliberately allowed citizens to be killed when Hamas paramilitaries launched a series of attacks on 7 October, to give them the ‘green light’ to invade Gaza.
The comments were met with fierce backlash from the Jewish community and other members of the Labour Party.
Shadow minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told broadcasters that Ali’s words were ‘completely wrong’ and ‘in no way represent’ Labour’s views.
Responding to the backlash, Ali took to the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to apologise for his comments.
A day later, the Daily Mail published another story containing further details of Ali’s comments following the events of October 7th.
They claim that in the recording Ali can be heard speaking about Andy McDonald’s dismissal from the Labour Party after he also made anti-Semitic comments.
He said: “The media – and some of the people in the media from certain Jewish quarters – were giving c**p about what he said.
“Israel has that plan, which is to get rid of [the Palestinians] from Gaza, push them out, (this) is about a land grab.”
Ali can also reportedly be heard boasting about preventing Israeli flags from being flown in local public buildings.
While Labour had stood by Ali after his initial comments, this new information led to them withdrawing their support later that night.
Despite this, Ali will remain on the ballot for the by-election on Thursday as a Labour candidate as, under electoral law, it is too late for the party to nominate a new candidate.
For this reason, voters will also see Guy Otten’s name on the ballot as a Green Party candidate despite dropping out of the by-election earlier this month.
This may help boost Ali’s chances of being elected as Rochdale has been somewhat of a Labour stronghold recently, holding the seat for 20 of the last 27 years.
However, Ali will hope that his policies will be what carries him to a successful election on Thursday night.
He laid out the five key policies in a social media post on X –
- To reopen Rochdale’s maternity unit.
- To implement guaranteed town centre patrols and a named police officer in every community.
- To make work pay by increasing wages, whilst reducing the cost of local transport.
- To deliver free breakfast clubs in primary schools and reduce the cost of school uniforms.
- To reduce the number of empty shops in Rochdale town centre and scrapping business rates.
This is my plan for Rochdale in 30 seconds. pic.twitter.com/nxXu8MkB3r
— Azhar Ali OBE (@CllrAzharAli) February 8, 2024
Before Labour withdrew their support for Ali, he was the favourite to win the by-election due to his deep-rooted connections to the community.
But after the recent controversy, Ali will face an uphill battle to win the seat, with former MP George Galloway ,69, emerging as the favourite to win the by-election.
Featured image: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0
