It is a measure of how conspiracy theories have triumphed in the darkest corners of the left that, when the Labour candidate for Rochdale started banging on about Jews, his rivals in the George Galloway campaign thought he was making a smart political move.

Azhar Ali had been taped putting forward two anti-Jewish fantasies.

In these paranoid circumstances, Galloway and his supporters think his victory is inevitable

First, he declared that the Israeli state had allowed Hamas to massacre Jews. Ali was not quite engaged in the modern equivalent of holocaust denial – that would have meant pretending the massacres never happened. Instead, Israel was meant to have ‘deliberately’ permitted the mass murder, rape and abduction of Jews because it wanted a pretext to devastate the Gaza Strip.

Not content with that, Ali moved closer to home: in a recording he appears to imagine that there was a conspiracy of Jewish journalists targeting a pro-Palestinian Labour politician.

James Giles, Galloway’s campaign manager seemed impressed. That’s the way to do it, he thought. That’s the way you win seats like Rochdale.

‘When I first heard those comments… I thought “my goodness he is trying to win back favour among the Muslim vote”,’ Giles said.

Then Ali went and blew it all by apologising ‘to Jewish leaders for my inexcusable comments’.

‘I thought… he won’t be receiving any votes from people who care about Israel-Palestine,’ Giles continued. ‘You can’t make a comment like that then row back on it very publicly. That’s just, frankly, pissing off everybody.’

So there you have it. The descent into foul and paranoid politics is the way to win in ‘Muslim’ seats.

Labour withdrew its support, although Ali will remain as the Labour candidate for the Rochdale by-election on 29 February because it is too late to change the ballot papers.

In retaliation, Ali’s supporters are urging him to apologise for his apology and campaign as a martyr sacked by Starmer ‘for speaking on Palestine’ rather than lying about Jews.

In these paranoid circumstances, Galloway and his supporters think his victory is inevitable.