Jeremy Corbyn won't be Labour candidate at next election, says Starmer

Jeremy Corbyn will not be a Labour candidate at the next general election, party leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Mr Corbyn was suspended from being a Labour MP and sits as an independent because of a row over antisemitism.

The former Labour leader had hoped to be readmitted so he could stand for re-election as a Labour candidate.

But Sir Keir said the party had changed under his leadership and "we are not going back", adding that if others did not back him they could leave.

Mr Corbyn has previously declined to comment on speculation he might stand against Labour as an independent candidate in his Islington North constituency. He did not comment as he left his house and he was not expected to respond on Wednesday.

But former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, one of his longstanding allies, said he had "no intention of standing as an independent", having been a member of the Labour Party since he was 16.

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Speaking to the BBC before Sir Keir made his remarks, Mr Corbyn said his suspension from the parliamentary party had been a "pretty poor way of treating people... There has been no process, there has been no discussion, there has been no appeal."

Momentum, the left-wing campaign group set up to support him when he was Labour leader, said: "It should be for Labour members in Islington North to decide their candidate - that is their democratic right.

"This Party does not belong to one man alone - it belongs to its members and trade unions."

Asked by reporters if he could "categorically" rule out his predecessor as leader representing the party at the next election, Sir Keir replied: "Let me be very clear about that: Jeremy Corbyn will not stand for Labour at the next general election, as a Labour party candidate.

"What I said about the party changing, I meant, and we are not going back, and that is why Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election."

He was speaking as Britain's equalities watchdog said Labour had improved how it handled antisemitism complaints.

In 2020, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found Labour, under Mr Corbyn, had been responsible for unlawful harassment and discrimination.

But a new report by the watchdog said it was now satisfied enough changes had been made.

This is undoubtedly a significant moment.

Only three years ago, Jeremy Corbyn was still the leader of the Labour Party, albeit after a bruising defeat in the 2019 general election.

Now his successor has said categorically that Mr Corbyn won't even be able to stand as a Labour candidate next time round - a mark, Sir Keir says, of how much the party has changed under his leadership.

A big question now is whether Mr Corbyn will stand as an independent in the constituency he's held for decades.

If he does, Momentum, the movement which has long supported him, hasn't said whether or not it would back him.

The organisation has already labelled Sir Keir's decision undemocratic, but if it were to support Mr Corbyn as an independent it would risk a showdown with the Labour leader.

Speaking in east London, Sir Keir said this was "an important moment in the history of the Labour Party" but "not one for celebration". He stressed it was "not the end of the road" and promised "zero tolerance of antisemitism, of racism, of discrimination of any kind".

He added it was an opportunity to "apologise once again. To all those who were hurt, to all those who were let down, to all those driven out of our party, who no longer felt it was their home, who suffered the most appalling abuse.

"Antisemitism is an evil and any political party that cultivates it does not deserve power."

'Door is open'

Labour was "unrecognisable from 2019 and it will never go back… if you don't like that, if you don't like the changes we have made, I say the door is open and you can leave", Sir Keir said.

In a statement, Momentum said: "We... will not allow ourselves to be driven out of the Party. What we've witnessed today is an attempt to dishearten and demoralise us.

"The door might be open - but we're not leaving."

Mr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP by Sir Keir for saying, in his response to the 2020 EHRC report, that the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been"dramatically overstated" by his opponents and much of the media.

He also said antisemitism was "absolutely abhorrent" and "one antisemite is one too many" in the party.

He was readmitted to the wider party after saying concerns about antisemitism had been neither "exaggerated nor overstated", but he remains barred from representing Labour in Parliament.

In December, Sir Keir said he could not "see the circumstances" under which Mr Corbyn would stand for Labour at the next election - but this was the first time he had ruled out his predecessor returning to the parliamentary party.

Mr Corbyn led Labour to defeat in the 2017 and 2019 general elections but remains a popular figure with many on the left of the party. From 2016, Sir Keir was a key member of his shadow cabinet, speaking for the party on Brexit.

Watchdog 'content'

Labour was forced to reform its practices after the highly critical EHRC report, published in October 2020, ruled the party was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.

The EHRC launched its inquiry in May 2019, during Mr Corbyn's tenure, after receiving a number of complaints about antisemitism within the party.

It found Labour had breached the Equality Act by failing to provide adequate training for staff dealing with allegations, and because of "political interference" from Mr Corbyn's office in the handling of those complaints.

Labour was ordered to draw up a plan to improve its complaints process, which it did in December 2020.

This committed the party to setting up an independent process to handle complaints, putting together a handbook for staff handling complaints, and improving training.

EHRC chief executive Marcial Boo said the watchdog was now "content with the actions taken" by the party and had wound up a two-year monitoring process at the end of January.

Sir Keir was introduced on Wednesday by the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl.

She said the idea of sharing a platform with a Labour leader "not too long ago... simply would be an impossibility".

"At the next election I believe all British Jews will once again be free to vote according to their political persuasion rather than out of fear," she added.

But she warned that there were still "issues with antisemitism particularly within the grassroots" of the Labour Party.