Party leader bars former MP David Ward from standing in Bradford East because he is ‘unfit to represent the party’

The Liberal Democrats have barred the former Bradford East MP David Ward from standing again for the party, after Tim Farron said his comments about Jews had been “deeply offensive, wrong and antisemitic”.

Ward’s local party had chosen him to stand in Bradford East, the seat he held from 2010 until 2015 when he was ousted by Labour, but after criticism from Theresa May in the House of Commons and a meeting of senior Lib Dem officials, Farron said: “I believe in a politics that is open, tolerant and united. David Ward is unfit to represent the party and I have sacked him.”

Ward, who sits as a councillor in Bradford, has also had his party membership suspended, party sources said. The former MP said it was a “huge disappointment” and called accusations of anti-semitism “a well-known tactic”.

May criticised Ward’s selection after a question from Eric Pickles during prime minister’s questions.

Pickles, who will retire at the June election, asked whether May shared “my disgust that a former member of this house criticised by the home affairs select committee for antisemitism has been selected for Bradford East for the Liberal Democrats”.

The prime minister said Pickles was “right to highlight Bradford” and that people would be “disappointed to see the Liberal Democrats re-adopt a candidate with a questionable record on antisemitism”.

The Lib Dems are understood to have been monitoring local polling that showed the party had a good chance to recapture the seat from Labour. A senior party source said it wanted make a serious effort to win the seat and Ward’s record could not be ignored.

“The fact that we have thrown out David Ward shows how seriously Tim takes this and how far he is prepared to go to stamp this stuff out,” the source said.

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Ward’s reselection appeared to take Lib Dem headquarters by surprise when news of it emerged on Tuesday night. The party had selected the vast majority of its candidates over the past year in preparation for a snap election, but Bradford East was not among them.

Ward was suspended from the party for three months in 2013 after a series of controversial comments including a blogpost about Holocaust Memorial Day in which he accusing “the Jews” of “inflicting atrocities on Palestinians”.

Ward has also said he would be willing to fire rockets from Gaza into Israel and praised the Labour MP Naz Shah after she was suspended by her party for antisemitic posts on Facebook.

Ward said he believed he was being targeted because of his criticism of Israel. “The antisemitic thing is a nonsense,” he said. “It is just used, it’s a well-known tactic. How do you avoid conversation or any criticism about Israel? Just say people are antisemitic. I am certainly not antisemitic.”

Ward said he would “defy anybody to find any comment I have ever made which is not solely related to what Israel is doing”.

Asked why he believed Farron had axed him, he said: “Just the pressure that they come under, all the party’s come under, and it works. The pressure works. It’s the fear of the electoral damage that can be done by being seen to oppose Israel. It’s contaminating and infecting our own political system.”

At a rally in St Albans on Wednesday Farron said he disagreed with Ward’s comments and hinted the party could take action.

“I am fully aware of the comments David Ward has made in the past and I find them deeply offensive, wrong and antisemitic,” he said. “I think his decision to stand again, and the local party’s decision to select him, is wrong and I disagree with it completely.

“I don’t select our individual candidates and nor should I. But let me be clear, I won’t tolerate antisemitism in my party. David Ward has been disciplined in the past and if he or anyone else makes antisemitic remarks in this campaign I will expect the party to act quickly and decisively, as we did when we suspended a candidate in Luton South yesterday.”

The Luton candidate, Ashuk Ahmed, was suspended over Facebook posts that compared Zionism to the Nazis.