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That change means a key threat to the Conservatives, who know that controversies surrounding Labour’s former leader Jeremy Corbyn played into Boris Johnson’s landslide victory in the general election in 2019.

That is why, politically, this week matters.

Two Labour parliamentary candidates, Azhar Ali and Graham Jones, have been suspended. In the case of Mr Ali, it is for apparently making antisemitic remarks at a meeting attended by local Labour politicians.

The hurt caused by antisemitism is obvious, and there is concern about community tensions that are potentially inflamed by the recordings published.

The whole saga is a reminder of the Labour Party’s recent past, which the leadership would like to remain firmly in the past.

And as the key agent of that change, this crisis thrusts Keir Starmer’s leadership into the spotlight in a week that “has not been the party’s finest hour” (to quote Mike Katz, the national chair of the Jewish Labour Movement).

Sir Keir made it a personal pledge to eradicate antisemitism from the party. His initial decision not to suspend Rochdale candidate Mr Ali drew on the support he has earned in recent years among the Jewish community.

The party is trying to claim that Sir Keir moved “swiftly” once new revelations about Mr Ali’s comments came to light. Sir Keir has described his eventual decision as “virtually unprecedented”.

But there is frustration in the shadow Cabinet and several Labour MPs believe he should have moved more quickly, raising questions about their leader’s judgement. It was always highly likely that more allegations were going to come to light, and the story was allowed to dominate the news cycle for almost 48 hours before the party withdrew its support.

There are parallels with the party’s announcement last week that it was dropping the £28bn price tag on its programme of green investment.

Uncertainty had been swirling for weeks before the decision eventually came.

Critics of Sir Keir point to a national Savanta poll released on Wednesday morning, which found the Labour lead over the Conservatives fell by seven points in the aftermath of that decision – though it is important not to draw conclusions from just one poll.

Other opinion polls have had the gap between the two parties widening and Labour remain on course for victory in the forthcoming general election as they have consistently over the past year.

It is too soon to know what impact this week has had on voters’ views of the leader.

If Keir Starmer does become the next prime minister, the judgement calls he has faced this week may pale in comparison to the decisions he could have to take on behalf of the country.

Whether this is damaging will depend on what message voters take from this whole situation: do they see leadership and tough decisions, or do they see delay and division?

Some will be encouraged that Keir Starmer has taken action to stop supporting a candidate in a by-election the party had a good chance of winning.

Others will be alarmed that antisemitic views continue to exist within the party despite his efforts, and don’t appear to have been reported by those present.

And while it redoubles efforts to eradicate antisemitism, the party has to be sensitive to those voters who want it to go further in its criticism of Israel. The SNP have announced they’ll call for a fresh vote on an immediate ceasefire in Gaza when Parliament returns next week – an issue that has already caused challenges for Labour.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives, themselves hardly united, are keen to make the most of any opportunity to highlight the challenges Labour is facing.

There are by-elections in Kingswood and Wellingborough taking place on Thursday. Both of them were Conservative-held seats. The Labour Party is hoping wins there will help them to change the narrative once again.

It’s a three-way race for the top job, between current Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto and two former governors, Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo.

One of them will succeed President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, who has served two full terms.

Mr Widodo remains hugely popular but his legacy has been tainted by accusations that he’s sought to retain political influence through his eldest son, who is running alongside Mr Prabowo, a military commander under the Suharto regime.

It has prompted fears that Indonesia is in danger of sliding back towards its authoritarian past.

The outcome of the election will also have an effect far beyond Indonesia, with the winner having to contend with the growing US-China rivalry in the Indo-Pacific region.

The frontrunner to be Indonesia’s next president has tried desperately to soften his strongman image but to some voters he is still associated with abuses committed during General Suharto’s dictatorship.

The 72-year-old Mr Prabowo was a military general who married one of General Suharto’s daughters. He came from a wealthy political family but the first half of his career was dedicated to the army.

During his time as a leading officer in Suharto’s regime, he’s accused of ordering his unit to abduct and torture dozens of democracy activists.

He was discharged following this scandal and went into self-imposed exile in Jordan in the 2000s.

But he returned to Indonesia a few years later, building up his wealth in various businesses before making the jump to politics.

He’s had the money and connections to run for president two times before – losing both times to Mr Widodo.

But in the last term, Mr Widodo brought him into his cabinet as defence minister – and this is now the closest Mr Prabowo has ever been to the top job. His running mate is Mr Widodo’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka.

Though Mr Widodo has not appeared at Mr Prabowo’s campaign events, he is seen as having tacitly endorsed the Prabowo-Gibran ticket.

A possible victory for Mr Prabowo is a frightening concept for freedom fighters. They fear a Suharto-era general back at the helm of Indonesian government will drag the country back into a dark period.

From languishing at the bottom of opinion surveys, Anies Baswedan is now polling second after he criticised Jokowi’s plan to move the capital from Jakarta to a new city that is being built on Borneo island.

The former Jakarta governor instead favours the development of existing cities to boost equitable growth instead of developing a new capital from scratch.

Mr Anies, 54, has portrayed himself as the alternative to the two other candidates who are expected to continue most of Mr Widodo’s policies if elected.

He has repeatedly claimed democracy has declined under Mr Widodo and pledged to be “consistent in keeping the country away from the practices of feudalism and nepotism”.

Mr Anies and his running mate Muhaimin Iskandar will be contesting this year’s elections under the banner of the Islamic-leaning Coalition of Change for Unity. Their narrative for change has received support from conservative Islamic groups in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.

The pair has pledged to create 15 million jobs, offer easier access to credit for prospective home buyers and to upgrade infrastructure in Indonesia’s second-tier cities, if elected.

Born into a family of academics, Mr Anies spent the earlier years of his career lecturing economics at Paramadina University, before entering politics in 2013, He was appointed education and culture minister after Mr Widodo’s first victory but he has been more vocal in criticising the president after being removed in a cabinet reshuffle.

In 2017, he won the election to become Jakarta’s governor in a divisive vote that exposed religious and ethnic tensions in the Indonesian capital. His tenure saw a push for urban infrastructure in the city, but some feel he has not done enough to address perennial issues like air pollution and traffic congestion.

The governor of one of Indonesia’s largest provinces presents himself as a humble man of the people.

There’s no political dynasty or family wealth behind his rise – only a skill to connect with people on a populist agenda: it’s won him two terms in Central Java.

But he’s facing long odds in the national election without the backing of the enormously popular Mr Widodo – who was himself backed by the PDI-P for the last two elections.

In the early days of the campaign, he was seen as Mr Widodo’s shoo-in successor and analysts had him pegged as the frontrunner. But Mr Widodo has since distanced himself from his party’s campaign.

Mr Ganjar has been left to rely on his populist appeal and grassroots campaign- selling policies such as millions of jobs, social welfare expansion and making university more accessible.

His campaign trail has focused on poorer areas across Indonesia’s islands – starting in Papua in the far east and moving across the archipelago, staying in humble villagers’ homes.

The silver-haired politician had been riding high as governor until he expressed opposition to Israel’s participation in the Under-20 Fifa World Cup which was to be held in his province. Fifa then announced it was pulling the tournament from the country – prompting a backlash from football fans against Mr Ganjar.

His running mate is Mohammad Mahfud, Indonesia’s former security minister, who was also a former chief justice of the Constitutional Court.

Graham Jones, the former Labour MP for Hyndburn, is also facing an investigation, the BBC understands.

It comes after Labour withdrew support for the party’s candidate for the Rochdale by-election, Azhar Ali, for apparently making antisemitic remarks.

Mr Jones has been contacted for comment.

Labour had selected Mr Jones to contest his former Lancashire seat in the forthcoming general election.

The BBC understands Mr Jones was suspended for comments he appears to have made about Israel – but Labour has yet to identify the specific remarks.

But, on Tuesday the Guido Fawkes website published audio in which the former MP allegedly uses an expletive to refer to Israel and argues that British people who fight in the Israel Defense Forces “should be locked up”.

Ministers have confirmed that British nationals with dual nationalities can “serve in legitimately recognised armed forces of the country of their other nationalities”.

At the same meeting, Mr Ali is alleged to have blamed “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” for the suspension of MP Andy McDonald from Labour.

The Jewish Labour Movement said Mr Jones’ alleged comments were “appalling and unacceptable”. The group later said it was “pleased” that Mr Jones had been “swiftly suspended”.

Mr Jones has been called in for an interview and the party will need to go through a formal process to remove his candidacy.

Earlier, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer insisted he took “decisive action” over comments made by Mr Ali, whose apparent remarks were published by the Daily Mail.

The party initially stood by Mr Ali when the MP hopeful apologised for telling a meeting of Labour members and councillors that Israel had “allowed” the Hamas attacks on 7 October as a pretext to invade Gaza.

However, when the Daily Mail published a fuller recording from the meeting, Labour made the decision to withdraw support.

Defending his actions, Sir Keir said: “Further information came to light yesterday calling for decisive action, so I took decisive action.

“It is a huge thing to withdraw support for a Labour candidate during the course of a by-election.

“But when I say the Labour Party has changed under my leadership I mean it.”

On Tuesday evening, former Labour MP Dame Louise Ellman said she had spoken to Mr Ali, who apologised to her for his comments.

 North West Tonight Mr Ali “should be upset” because his comments were “truly shocking” and “go against the record of the person I knew and worked with” for over 20 years.

When Sir Keir became Labour leader in 2020, he promised to tackle antisemitism saying he would “tear out this poison by its roots”.

However, in recent days he has received criticism for failing to withdraw support from Mr Ali sooner.

Martin Forde, who led a review into allegations of bullying and racism in the Labour Party, said the handling of the case had been “pretty shambolic” and it would have been “sensible” to withdraw support for Mr Ali when his comments first emerged.

The senior lawyer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that some Labour MPs believe there is uneven handling of antisemitism cases across party factions.

Left-leaning MPs feel Labour’s disciplinary process is slow for them “but if you’re in the right faction of the party, as it were, then things are dealt with either more leniently or more swiftly”, Mr Forde said.

The Labour leader received support from Lord Mann, the government’s adviser on antisemitism and a former Labour MP.

He said it was “a bold decision, basically to throw away a parliamentary seat”, adding: “I think the Jewish community, as it reflects, will take quite a lot of comfort from the fact that Sir Keir Starmer has been prepared to do that.”

Housing minister Lee Rowley told the BBC the situation with Mr Ali had been “a complete mess”.

Although Labour has withdrawn their support, electoral rules mean that Mr Ali will still appear as the party’s candidate on the ballot paper. If elected he would sit as an independent.

Also running are former Labour MPs Simon Danczuk, now the Reform Party candidate, and George Galloway, of the Workers Party of Britain, who has campaigned against Labour’s stance on Gaza.