Jeremy Corbyn was expelled from the Labor Party and became an independent candidate

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Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labor leader, will stand as an independent candidate in his north London constituency after being expelled from the party.

The 74-year-old veteran socialist was first elected as MP for Islington North in 1983 but was removed from the party whip in November 2020 after persistent allegations of anti-Semitism within the Party Labor during his leadership was “considerably overstated for political reasons”.

Corbyn was leader from 2015 to 2020 and his unapologetically left-wing approach generated enthusiasm among Labor Party members, whose numbers almost tripled to more than half a million during his tenure. grandfather. However, many Labor MPs refused to serve as shadow minister because of his radical views.

In 2019, Corbyn led the party to its most disastrous general election defeat in nearly a century, losing 60 MPs.

In a video post on X on Friday, he said: “As your parliamentarian, I will continue to be an independent voice for equality, democracy and peace.”

ONE Labor officials confirmed that Corbyn had been expelled from the party.

Kate Dove, chairwoman of the pro-Corbyn campaign group Momentum, said the local party had wanted Corbyn back as Labor candidate.

“But [Keir] Starmer and his Westminster team once again denied local people the opportunity to choose a candidate and blocked Jeremy,” she said. “Starmer has treated the people of Islington with contempt, setting the stage for a divisive and distracting election campaign.”

Starmer has largely sidelined most of the Labor Party’s left-wing MPs since he became leader in 2020, as part of a bid to put the party at the center of British politics.

He also imposed a zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitism in the party after an EHRC report found the Labor Party had acted illegally by does not solve the problem under Corbyn’s leadership.

Diane Abbott, a prominent left-wing figure who was home secretary under Corbyn – and the first black female MP in the UK – has been suspended since April 2023 after suggesting that Jews never “got racist” in a letter to a newspaper. She later apologized and said the comment was in an “early draft” and did not mean it would be sent.

On Friday morning, Starmer said Labour’s long-running investigation into Abbott would soon end. “We have a deadline, I think it’s June 4. . . We have a process in place and we will get it done properly soon,” he told LBC. The Labor leader said the problem was the party’s ruling national executive committee’s, not his.

Meanwhile, Starmer blamed the UK’s difficult financial situation for his decision to scrap some previous Labor policies, such as plans to abolish tuition fees.

“I think it’s important to take a moment to appreciate the damage that has been done to the economy, the damage over the last 14 years, especially from [former Conservative prime minister] Liz Truss,” the Labor leader said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“We must be clear that we will only make election commitments that we know we can keep.”

The Labor leader also confirmed he will implement plans to impose a 20% VAT on private school tuition as soon as possible if his party wins the general election on July 4.

Asked whether the policy would be implemented on day one, Starmer replied: “The issue is the timetable in parliament. But these first steps are intended to be implemented immediately.” The Labor Party’s policy would raise around £1.6 billion a year, which would be used to improve England’s state schools.