Jeremy Corbyn has lashed out at Sir Keir Starmer’s determination to bar him from standing as a Labour candidate on the subsequent normal election – calling it a “flagrant assault” on democracy.
The previous Labour chief, who at the moment sits as an impartial MP, hit out at his successor and described the transfer as a “divisive distraction from our overriding purpose: to defeat the Conservative Occasion”.
It comes after Sir Keir unequivocally barred Mr Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate on the subsequent normal election throughout a speech on his get together’s crackdown on antisemitism on Wednesday morning.
The Labour chief additionally welcomed the Equality and Human Rights Fee (EHRC)’s determination to carry the get together out of two years of particular measures over its previous failings on the problem.
“Jeremy Corbyn won’t stand for Labour on the subsequent normal election as a Labour get together candidate. What I mentioned in regards to the Labour get together altering I meant, and we’re not going again,” Sir Keir mentioned.
The chief mentioned the get together was “unrecognisable from 2019” earlier than delivering a message to left-wingers sad together with his strategy. “To them, I say in all candour: we’re by no means going again. When you don’t prefer it, no one is forcing you to remain.”
Responding to Sir Keir, Mr Corbyn mentioned: “Any try to dam my candidacy is a denial of due course of, and ought to be opposed by anyone who believes within the worth of democracy.”
He mentioned blocking his candidacy was “denial of due course of” and was thwarting the democratic rights of Islington North Labour get together members. “It’s as much as them – not get together leaders – to determine who their candidate ought to be.”
Mr Corbyn, who has been MP for Islington North since 1983, has been sitting as an impartial since Sir Keir withdrew the Labour whip from him in October 2020 over his response to the EHRC antisemitism investigation.
He was readmitted to the get together as a rank-and-file member by a disciplinary panel, however then denied the parliamentary whip after a private intervention by Sir Keir.
Critics of Mr Corbyn say that antisemitism ran uncontrolled within the get together underneath his watch, whereas his defenders declare the issue was exaggerated by Labour opponents to undermine him politically.
The left-wing ex-leader didn’t say whether or not he would stand as an impartial towards an official Labour candidate in his assertion posted on Twitter.
“At a time when the federal government is overseeing the worst cost-of-living disaster in a era, it is a divisive distraction from our overriding purpose: to defeat the Conservative Occasion on the subsequent normal election,” he mentioned.
Corbyn and Starmer collectively in 2019
(REUTERS)
Mr Corbyn mentioned he was nonetheless “proud to symbolize the labour motion in parliament”, including: “I’m targeted on standing up for employees on the picket line, the marginalised, and all these apprehensive about their futures. That’s what I’ll proceed to do. I counsel the Labour get together does the identical.”
Writing for The Impartial, Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, mentioned Sir Keir was “proper to verify” that Mr Corbyn wouldn’t be a candidate for the get together.
“His cussed refusal to simply accept his function in permitting antisemitism to flourish, and his assertion that his opponents inside the get together had exaggerated the problem means he stays a part of the issue and never the answer,” she mentioned.
Labour MP Diane Abbott, one in all Mr Corbyn’s longest-standing allies, urged his conflict with Sir Keir was inevitable due to Brexit, saying the left-wing former chief “in his coronary heart of hearts is a Brexiteer”.
She advised the Information Brokers podcast: “Jeremy in his coronary heart of hearts is a Brexiteer and Keir Starmer at that time was passionately pro-European.”
Pressed on whether or not Mr Corbyn actually needed out of the EU, she mentioned: “Sure, I’ve identified Jeremy a very long time. He noticed it as a conspiracy of enterprise folks and so forth. So, that was the widespread view on the left within the 80s.”
She added: “However Jeremy has all the time been about uniting the get together, he knew most get together members had been pro-European. However himself, I might say, deep down he was a Brexiter.”