Thursday’s byelection in the northern English constituency of Rochdale is shaping up to be one of the oddest in recent memory. Labour won the seat at the last general election in 2019, but the party has no official candidate this time around, although two former Labour MPs are running for other parties. Following the death of veteran Labour MP Tony Lloyd, the party chose local councillor Azhar Ali as its candidate. It withdrew its support two weeks ago after a recording emerged of Ali claiming Israel had deliberately permitted the Hamas attack of October 7th in order to justify its...