Labour launches selection process to replace Jeremy Corbyn at general election
Labour has launched the process to select a general election candidate to replace Jeremy Corbyn in the London seat of Islington North.
The former Labour leader has had the party whip suspended since 2020 over his response to a report into antisemitism, meaning he currently sits as an independent MP.
Last year he was effectively blocked from standing for Labour after the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) backed a motion to prevent him from being endorsed for the seat he has represented for more than 40 years.
The veteran MP was first elected to represent Islington North in 1983 and has won it at each of the last 10 elections, often by a comfortable margin.
Mr Corbyn, who remains a Labour member, has still not said whether he plans to run as an independent. Doing so could result in him being suspended from the party he has been part of for 50 years.
Applications to be selected to run for Labour in the seat opened on Wednesday, with candidates expected to be shortlisted next week.
The hustings will take place online, with Labour dismissing suggestions this is unusual. The result is expected to be announced on 1 June, according to reports.
Momentum, a grass-roots group set up in the wake of Mr Corbyn’s leadership election victory back in 2015, hit out at the decision to bar Mr Corbyn from standing – pointing to his support among local Labour members.
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Momentum chair Kate Dove said: “Jeremy Corbyn has loyally represented the people of Islington North for over 40 years and remains a Labour member of more than 50 years.
“His own local party voted unanimously to express support for Jeremy and assert their right to choose their own parliamentary candidate.
“Labour members in Islington North should decide if they want Jeremy to continue as their Labour candidate, not Keir Starmer’s Westminster clique. Democracy demands it.”
Mr Corbyn has not commented on the selection process opening.
Sir Keir Starmer served in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet when he was leader. Pic: PA
He has previously called the ban on him standing a “shameful attack on party democracy” and hinted he could stand as an independent, saying: “I have spent my life fighting for a fairer society on behalf of the people of Islington North, and I have no intention of stopping now.”
Mr Corbyn was suspended from the parliamentary party in October 2020 over his reaction to a report by the EHRC which was critical of the party’s handling of antisemitism complaints under his leadership.
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Immediately after its publication, Mr Corbyn claimed “the scale of the problem” of Labour antisemitism allegations was “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents”.
Sir Keir Starmer, who served in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, has insisted there is no way back into the party for his predecessor, arguing that allowing him to stand at the next election would lead to Labour’s chances of winning power being “significantly diminished”.
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Politics
Reform UK overtakes Conservative membership – Nigel Farage calls it ‘historic’, Kemi Badenoch says numbers are ‘fake’
Reform UK now has more members than the Conservative Party and is “the real opposition” according to Nigel Farage, while Kemi Badenoch has called his numbers “fake”.
According to a digital counter on the party’s website, Reform UK had gone past 131,690 members – the amount the Conservative Party declared before its leadership election in the autumn – just before midday on Boxing Day.
Mr Farage, party leader and MP for Clacton-on-Sea, hailed the “historic moment” and said on X: “The youngest political party in British politics has just overtaken the oldest political party in the world. Reform UK are now the real opposition.”
But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused the party of issuing misleading figures: “Manipulating your own supporters at Xmas eh, Nigel?. It’s not real. It’s a fake… [the website has been] coded to tick up automatically.”
Posting on X, she added that the Tories had “gained thousands of new members since the leadership election”.
Reform UK also shared a video of the membership tracker being projected on to the Conservative Party headquarters in London overnight.
Zia Yusuf, party chairman, also said “history has been made today” and that the Tories’ “centuries-long stranglehold on the centre-right of British politics” has “finally been broken”.
Mr Farage hit back at Ms Badenoch, who strongly contested Reform UK’s figures. He claimed to have proof and posted a screenshot of an online register reportedly showing ‘active memberships’.
“We understand you are bitter, upset and angry that we are now the second biggest party in British politics, and that the Conservative brand is dying under your leadership. However, this not an excuse to accuse us of committing fraud,” he wrote on X.
Mr Yusuf added to the debate by appearing to goad Ms Badenoch about an audit: “We will gladly invite a Big 4 audit firm to verify our membership numbers on the basis that you do the same.”
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Nigel Farage said Reform UK is ‘now the real opposition’ after the ‘historic moment’. Pic: Reuters
The Conservative party membership figure – shared after Kemi Badenoch was announced as the new leader on 2 November – was the lowest on record and a drop from the 2022 leadership contest, when there were around 172,000 members.
In response, a Conservative Party spokesman said: “Reform has delivered a Labour Government that has cruelly cut winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners, put the future of family farming and food security at risk, and launched a devastating raid on jobs which will leave working people paying the price.
“A vote for Reform this coming May is a vote for a Labour council – only the Conservatives can stop this.”
According to research from the House of Commons Library, there is no uniformly recognised definition of party membership and no established method or body to monitor the number of members each political group has.
Reform UK was also originally set up as a limited company, but Mr Farage said he would change the party’s structure to be member-owned in September.
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It comes after Mr Farage offered to help Lord Mandelson, the new ambassador to the US, negotiate with president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
A long-time associate of Mr Trump, he has been seen at several Republican events during and after the presidential election.
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