Labour's Rochdale by-election mess was of its own making

Starmer can comfort himself with one thing as he surveys the wreckage of a once-safe Labour seat: at least no one is calling him boring any more.

It has been an action-packed few days for the Labour leader. First the party’s candidate in the Rochdale by-election, Azhar Ali, was caught on tape making vile remarks about Israel and “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters”.

That’s dreadful enough, but for Starmer and his aides to make matters worse with a bodged response, well, that takes some doing.

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All of this before he heads to Glasgow for Scottish Labour’s annual conference. It should have been a straightforward celebration of victory at another by-election, Rutherglen and Hamilton West. Instead, a planned protest at Sir Keir’s refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza will likely attract even more marchers. Added to this will be a renewed focus on the differences between the party’s UK and Scottish leaders, not least over Gaza.

Rochdale has exposed a list of concerns about Labour and its leader, one that is growing longer by the hour. Chief among them is how Ali could have been selected in the first place. According to those who tried to defend him, his words were at odds with the person they had known, in some instances for decades. He was said to be someone, moreover, with a long track record in calling out anti-Semitism.

How many other Jekyll and Hyde candidates are out there, waiting to be exposed? And how could any of them survive Sir Keir’s tearing out of anti-Semitism “by its roots”? As for initially trying to cast Ali as a hapless believer in some internet conspiracy theory, stupidity is no defence.

The story broke in the Mail on Sunday. Labour would have been approached for a response the night before. The candidate should have been dumped by Sunday lunchtime. Instead, matters took a turn for the weird. Pat McFadden, Labour's national campaign co-ordinator, was asked about the story on BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. He condemned the comments as appalling, which would have been the cue to announce the party was withdrawing its support, but that did not happen. Only half a response was made, and from that point things spiralled out of Labour’s control.

At first the party tried to argue that Ali had apologised and accepted his mistake (some mistake, accusing Israel of knowing about the October 7 massacre and using it as a pretext to invade Gaza). When that failed to last the day, McFadden was wheeled out again to declare “new information” had come to light and Ali was no longer Labour’s candidate.

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Except it is too late to get his name off the ballot, so Labour’s embarrassment continues till polling day on February 29. The candidate most likely to benefit from is Mr Indefatigability himself, George Galloway.

Starmer said yesterday that he did act decisively when “further information” came to light, and the fact he was willing to take such drastic action as withdrawing support in the middle of a by-election shows how much the party has changed under his leadership. But that is like dealing with a flat tyre by buying a new car: it’s costly, unnecessary and you look even more of an eejit when it is done.

Rishi Sunak could hardly believe his luck, the Labour leader dumping Ali just before the Prime Minister was about to go on GB News. “No principles at all,” said a delighted Sunak.

It is not a criticism often levied at a Labour leader by the Conservatives. The standard play is to depict him (and yes it is always a him) as someone who cannot be trusted and who is not all they seem. Remember that daft Tony Blair “demon eyes” ad?

According to the Tory script, Starmer was as keen a Corbynite as any but ditched everything he believed in then to become leader. Thereafter he went through the party’s list of policy promises and spending commitments and dumped most of them, including, most recently, the £28 billion Green package.

He is accused of being a serial flip-flopper, and it is not just the Tories saying it. His own MPs and other party members wonder what he is up to at times, and where it will end. It is still true that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them, but you have to give people some reason to go out and vote.

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There are other questions, about Sir Keir’s outlook and temperament in general, and the party’s readiness for government. Again, the most pointed observations come from within. In John Cruddas’s book, A Century of Labour, the MP for Dagenham and Rainham writes: “Starmer often seems detached from his own party and uncomfortable in communion with fellow MPs. In his immediate circles, he appears to value the familiar and unchallenging.”

When challenged he responds more often than not by giving in. The U-turn on the Green pledge was the most glaring example of this but there are others, including rowing back on scrapping the two-child benefit cap.

Just as the last few days have left Starmer with questions to answer, someone should be asking his top team what they did in this brief war. The spin before the weekend was that Sue Gray, former civil servant, now Labour chief of staff, had everything working smoothly, ready to glide into government when the time came. What happened to all the wise heads when they were most needed? Were they away on half-term hols? You have to wonder who, if anyone, did advise Starmer.

Starmer’s critics may be overstating the magnitude of what happened in Rochdale, but Labour needs to learn from this experience. It was inevitable that the heat would turn on Labour in this, an election year. Every Labour leader has gone through a baptism of fire with the media. Sir Keir has, if anything, had it easier than most. It is only the spectacular awfulness of the Conservatives, and the SNP’s annus horribilis, that has spared Sir Keir thus far.

This was a mess of the party’s own making. The next time, and there will be one, it must be better prepared. Rehearsal time is over.