Today’s news summary – Paper Talk: ‘Labour ditches candidate in the Rochdale by-election’

Many of Tuesday’s newspaper front pages lead on Labour’s decision to cut ties with its candidate in the Rochdale by-election. Several papers report that Ali “claimed Israel ‘deliberately allowed’ Hamas’ October 7 massacre” amongst other claims. Ali has previously apologised.

Pictures of Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl are also featured on the front pages this morning. 

‘Labour disowns Ali over comments’

The Daily Mail leads on the comments candidate Azhar Ali made that caused the party to withdraw its support. The paper says Ali told a Labour meeting shortly after the Hamas attacks on 7 October that Israel planned to “get rid of Palestinians from Gaza” and “grab” some of the land.

The Mail reports that it had obtained a full audio tape of his comments during a meeting of the Lancashire Labour Party. The paper claims he also blamed negative coverage of a pro-Palestinian MP on “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters”. Ali has previously apologised.

Labour has been forced to “disown” Ali, according to the Telegraph which says the move means the party is effectively conceding Rochdale – where it has a majority of around 9,000. 

The Times says Sir Keir Starmer has promised to tear out antisemitism in the Labour Party but says the roots cling “stubbornly and destructively to the foundations of the British left as Japanese knotweed”. 

The Sun accuses Starmer of “dithering” on whether to ditch Ali but the i newspaper’s Richard Vaughan writes that the Labour leader’s team might argue that the decision was “better late than never.” 

Labour supporters in Rochdale could rally around Simon Danczuk, the party’s disgraced former MP for the constituency, according to the Guardian. He is standing for the Reform Party. One source tells the paper the choice between Danczuk and George Galloway, who is running for the Workers Party of Britain, was like “the devil and the deep blue sea”.