Jeremy Corbyn: what happens if former Labour leader stands again?

Jeremy Corbyn has demanded that his “absurd and disgraceful” suspension from Labour be lifted so that he can represent the party at the next election.

The former Labour leader lost the party whip in October 2020 over his comments about an Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) investigation into anti-Semitism in Labour that uncovered “serious failings” during his time in charge. Corbyn claimed that the scale of the reported harassment and discrimination against Jewish members had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.

Since being “booted out” of Labour, said the Daily Mail, Corbyn has represented his Islington North seat as in independent MP, and “has been told he can only return if he apologises for downplaying the racism, something he refuses to do”.

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Speaking to Global Radio’s The News Agents podcast last week, Corbyn argued that “Labour Party members ought to be allowed to decide who the Labour candidates are”. He also defended Labour backbencher Kim Johnson, who had apologised after being censured for branding the Israeli government “fascist”.

‘He would win’

Corbyn’s push to be reinstated has been backed by Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham. The union boss told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that “it’s clear he’s a Labour MP, and of course, I think that if he stood in his constituency, he’d win, actually”.

She added: “Rather than creating barriers, why don’t we try and bring people together?”

Unite remains the Labour Party’s main financial backer, but “relations have been strained since Starmer took the helm and adopted a more cautious approach to striking workers”, said HuffPost.

Keir Starmer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in December that he didn’t “see the circumstances” in which Labour would allow Corbyn to stand as the party’s candidate in the next election.

However, a question mark hovers over who would stand for Labour in Corbyn’s Islington North constituency, which he has represented for four decades, if he decides to run again as an independent. Despite leading Labour to a loss in the 2019 general election, Corbyn secured a personal majority of 26,188 in the London seat.

It’s no wonder that “no queue is forming” to run against him, said The Spectator’s Nick Cohen. The local party is about 4,000-strong, and “internal party elections for constituency officers show strong support for pro-Corbyn candidates”.

‘Special measures’

Following the publication of the EHRC’s report into Labour’s failings in tackling anti-Semitism, the party was forced to come up with an action plan or face legal action.

Labour was only the second political party ever to be investigated by the EHRC, after the British National Party (BNP).

The two-year monitoring period for Labour’s action plan has now ended, but the human rights watchdog is not yet expected to lift the party out of special measures, “suggesting it believes there remain some unresolved issues”, said The Sunday Telegraph’s chief political correspondent Camilla Turner.

In a further headache for Labour, Corbyn remains a focal point for Conservative attacks in Westminster. “When his back is against the wall in Parliament, Rishi Sunak is forced to bring up the ghost of ‘The Member for Islington North’ in a bid to haunt Keir Starmer,” wrote journalist and broadcaster J.J. Anisiøbi for Metro.

And “until the ghost of Corbyn is exorcised”, Anisiøbi predicted, the Tory leader “will continue to raise his name in an attempt to sow distrust towards Starmer”.