Keir Starmer will move to officially BLOCK ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a party MP at the next general election at crunch meeting TOMORROW
- Mr Corbyn has sat as an independent since losing the whip in October 2020
- If blocked he can run as an independent or quit after 40 years in Parliament
Jeremy Corbyn is expected to be officially blocked from standing as a Labour MP at the next general election in an extraordinary meeting of senior party officials tomorrow.
Sir Keir Starmer will demand the move at a meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), at least a year before a general election is expected.
Mr Corbyn has sat as an independent since October 2020, due to his failure to apologise for comments downplaying anti-Semitism in the party during his time as leader between 2015 and 2020.
A vote to block the Islington North MP from running for the party would force him to either run against it as an independent or quit after 40 years in Parliament.
A motion tabled by the current leader argues ‘the Labour Party’s interests, and its political interests at the next general election, are not well served by Mr Corbyn running as a Labour Party candidate’.
A senior Labour source said: ‘Keir Starmer has made clear that Jeremy Corbyn won’t be a Labour candidate at the next general election. The Labour Party now is unrecognisable from the one that lost in 2019. Tuesday’s vote will confirm this.’
Sir Keir Starmer is expected to demand the move at a meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) at least a year before a general election is expected
Mr Corbyn has sat as an independent since October 2020, due to his failure to apologise for comments downplaying anti-Semitism in the party during his time as leader between 2015 and 2020
A motion tabled by the current leader argues ‘the Labour Party’s interests, and its political interests at the next general election, are not well served by Mr Corbyn running as a Labour Party candidate’
Sir Keir announced his intention to block his predecessor from running for the party in February.
The 73-year-old has been MP for Islington North since 1983 but had the Labour whip stripped from him by Sir Keir as part of a row over the party’s past handling of anti-Semitism claims.
In his initial response to a damning Equality and Human Rights Commission report, Mr Corbyn claimed the scale of anti-Semitism in the party had been ‘dramatically overstated for political reasons’ by opponents both inside and outside Labour, along with the media.
He has refused to apologise, and has been told he will not be a Labour MP again unless he does.
He has not ruled out running against Labour as an independent, with supporters saying he has a strong enough base locally to win. But Labour believes its candidate would take the seat.
Momentum, the grassroots campaign group that supports Mr Corbyn, attacked the move today.
A spokesman said it ‘insults the millions of people inspired by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership’, adding: ‘We urge all NEC representatives to reject this anti-democratic manoeuvre tomorrow – it should be for Islington North Labour members to decide their candidate, not a neighbouring MP drunk on his own power.’
