It appears from his speeches that Sir Keir Starmer is serious in his determination to root out antisemitism from the party. And whatever one’s view of his loyal support of Jeremy Corbyn when he was leader, Sir Keir is plainly neither an extremist nor a man who sympathises with extremists.

But while powerful words are a necessary component of leadership, they are not enough. Leaders are judged on their actions. And by that measure, although he has made reasonable progress, Sir Keir has recently been failing in his task.

Last week, we exposed Milton Keynes councillor Ansar Hussein, who shared Israel-related conspiracy theories on social media. He was quickly suspended by Labour.

Today, we report the views of Ibrahim Ali, a newly elected councillor in Haringey, who worked for CAGE, an organisation described as “apologists for terror”; and Joyce Wallace, a fellow councillor in the borough, who described a rabbi as being “paid handsomely” for criticising Jeremy Corbyn. The former has been suspended, and the party is assessing the case of the latter.

Under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, such stories were so frequent that they came to be expected. Sir Keir wishes to be seen as a very different leader to his predecessor. But the selections of Cllr Hussein, Cllr Ali and Cllr Wallace to fight last month’s local elections reveals a level of complacency in the vetting of candidates that poses deep and serious questions for the Labour leader.

Suspension after the event is wholly unsatisfactory; their suspension is from Labour membership, not from the office to which they have been elected. The electorate was presented with candidates endorsed by the party, trusting that those candidates were worthy of their vote. They were not, and that is Labour’s responsibility.

If Sir Keir really wants to root out extremism, he needs to get a grip of the party’s vetting process. Meanwhile, the question must be asked: how many other Labour councillors harbour similar views?