My treatment by Labour not a good example - Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has been Islington North's MP for 41 years

Ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has rejected claims that he is betraying his former party by choosing to stand as an independent candidate in Islington North at the general election.

Labour's ruling body blocked Mr Corbyn from standing as the party's candidate in March 2023, after he had previously been suspended from Labour over his response to a report into antisemitism in the party during his time as leader.

"The way I’ve been treated is not a good example of how things should be done,” said the man who has been MP in the north London constituency for 41 years, after handing in his election nomination papers in at Islington Town Hall on Wednesday.

Labour said the party was "unrecognisable from the one that lost" the 2019 general election under Mr Corbyn's leadership.

It has instead selected Praful Nargund, an Islington councillor, to contest the Islington North seat.

A crowd of his supporters gathered outside the town hall, cheering, waving banners and singing “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” as he addressed them.

Speaking to BBC London, Labour's leader from 2015 to 2020 said: “I was denied the right to even be considered as a Labour candidate.

"I think it’s wrong when the Labour Party acts in a way of preventing people even being considered as a candidate and imposes candidates on constituencies.

He added: “We need democracy in our society and in our political parties.”

Mr Corbyn was first elected as the MP for the area in 1983 and, at the last general election, he was re-elected as the Labour candidate with 64.3% of the vote.

Last year, he was suspended over his reaction to a highly critical report on antisemitism, having said he thought its scale within Labour had been "dramatically overstated".

At the time, the Labour Party said Mr Corbyn had been suspended for "a failure to retract his words", but Mr Corbyn called the move "political".

Former colleagues of Mr Corbyn have criticised his decision to stand as an independent, saying that it was Labour that had given him the platform to become an MP in the first place.

Mr Corbyn was Labour leader between 2015 and 2020

Speaking about Mr Corbyn to BBC Radio London last month, the former London Labour MP Harriet Harman said she did not “believe in people who owe their own political career to a party turning their back on the party”.

Asked by the BBC if his decision to stand as an independent was a betrayal of Labour, Mr Corbyn said: “Absolutely not, quite the opposite.

"I was, of course, elected as a Labour candidate back in 1983.

"I joined the Labour party when I was 16, so the way Islington North Labour party has been treated, the way I’ve been treated is not a good example of how things should be done.”

Mr Corbyn stepped down as Labour leader after the party’s worst election defeat since the 1930s at the last general election in 2019.

'No need to diss past'

Asked how he felt about his replacement's focus on changing the party since then, Mr Corbyn said Sir Keir Starmer had been "very happy to be in the [shadow] cabinet” under Mr Corbyn, adding: “I don’t think there’s any need to diss the past or diss his involvement in it”.

On his response to the antisemitism report that led to his suspension from Labour in 2020, Mr Corbyn said he was still of the view that the claims against him at the time had been exaggerated.

A Labour spokesperson said: "Under Keir's leadership antisemitism has been ripped out by its roots and Labour is now back in the service of working people.

"The Labour Party now is unrecognisable from the one that lost in 2019.

"The people of Islington North have a chance on 4 July to deliver change for the country by electing a Labour MP whose focus will be on delivering economic stability, cutting NHS waiting times and putting in place plans to lower energy bills for good.”

A full list of candidates standing in Islington North will be available after nominations close later this week.

Those to have already declared they will stand include (in alphabetical order):

• Vikas Aggarwal, Liberal Democrats

• Jeremy Corbyn, Independent

• Sheriden Kates, Green Party;

• Praful Nargund, Labour

• Martyn Nelson, Reform UK