COR BLIMEY
Jeremy Corbyn confirms he’s running against Labour as an independent in General Election in major blow for Starmer
Mr Corbyn was booted out of Labour over comments he made playing down institutional antisemitism under his leadership
EX-LABOUR chief Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed that he will stand as an independent at the General Election in a major blow for Keir Starmer.
The 74-year-old socialist will battle head-to-head with his old party in a desperate bid to keep his leafy North London seat.
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Mr Corbyn lost the Labour whip over comments he made in 2020 playing down institutional antisemitism under his party leadership.
The hard-left MP was given the chance to apologise and rejoin the opposition ranks - but he refused.
Mr Corbyn has been informed he is no longer a member of the Labour Party.
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Mr Corbyn said he would "continue to be an independent voice for equality, democracy and peace".
He wrote: "I am standing as an independent candidate for the people of Islington North.
"As your MP, I will continue to be an independent voice for equality, democracy and peace.
"Please join our campaign at . Let's prove that when we come together, we can win."
In a headache for Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Corbyn is set to stand on a pro-Palestine platform calling for Britain to tear up ties with Israel.
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The independent MP will seize on Labour's fractured relationship with Muslim voters and play to an audience disillusioned by his ex-party's moderate stance on Gaza.
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Mr Corbyn is also likely to accuse Sir Keir of being too similar to the Tories on issues including benefits, health and foreign policy.
In a video posted on X, Jeremy Corbyn said members of Islington North Labour were "denied the right to choose their own candidate".
He said: "I believe in democracy.
"I want our political parties to be democratic, but members of Islington North Labour have been denied the right to choose their own candidate, and alongside that the community as a whole has been disempowered because of that.
"So we have to stand up. We have to stand up and say, we're not taking this anymore, we will assert our rights.
"That's why I'm standing to be an independent candidate for the people of Islington North."
Labour today announced that Praful Nargund will stand as the party's candidate for Islington North.
The entrepreneur is a campaigner and councillor local to the area.
But a group of 100 active Islington North Labour party members who are committed to fighting for Sir Keir to lead the party to victory expressed their anger.
A spokesman for the Jewish Labour Movement said: "The Labour Party became an unsafe space for Jews under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
"He refused to acknowledge the scale of antisemitism in Labour, even when the Equality & Human Rights Commission found the party guilty of breaking the law.
The Labour Party we see today is unrecognisable from what it had become under Corbyn, thanks to the leadership of Keir Starmer.
"We are a serious party of power, just four years after Corbyn led Labour to its worst defeat for 80 years.
"Voters in Islington North deserve a Labour MP and Government - we'll be campaigning to make sure they get one."
In a statement, they said: "It saddens us as active members of Islington North Labour Party that our MP should turn his back on our local campaign to elect a Labour Government.
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"We are confident Jeremy Corbyn doesn't have the support of the majority of local party members and his announcement today is a distraction from the real fight which is against the Tories.
"He is someone who doesn't represent the future but is of the past."
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Corbyn's biggest controversies
Reaction to the Labour antisemitism probe
In October 2020 Jeremy Corbyn was booted out as a Labour MP over comments he made about a probe into antisemitism under his leadership.
A bombshell report by the government's equality watchdog found Labour responsible for "unlawful" harassment and discrimination against Jewish people during Mr Corbyn's reign.
The Islington North MP responded to the judgement by saying that accusations of antisemitism were "dramatically overstated".
Laying a wreath at a terror grave
In 2014 Mr Corbyn laid a wreath at the grave of terrorist masterminds alongside the leader of a group who murdered a British rabbi a month later.
The Labour leader was pictured next to Maher al-Taher, leader-in-exile of proscribed Palestinian terror organisation the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, at the ceremony in Tunis in October 2014.
In November of that year two of their men killed four rabbis in a Synagogue during morning prayers in Jerusalem.
One of those was Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, a 68-year-old father-of-six originally from Liverpool, who had retired to Israel.
Defending an antisemitic mural
Mr Corbyn sparked fury in 2018 after it emerged that he defended an artist who painted an antisemitic mural.
The graphic, called Freedom for Humanity, was painted on a property near Brick Lane in East London by international graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, known as Mear One.
It showed a number of bankers around a monopoly board, betting with money, and a sign on the edge of the frame reads: "The new world order is the enemy of humanity."
The artist on Facebook: "Tomorrow they want to buff my mural. Freedom of Expression. London Calling. Public Art."
Corbyn replied: "Why? You are in good company. Rockerfeller destroyed Diego Viera's mural because it includes a picture of Lenin."
Calling Hamas members "hardworking" and "my friends"
Mr Corbyn once called terrorist group Hamas “serious and hardworking” and even labelled members as his "friends".
The MP faced widespread criticism for welcoming members of Islamic militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah to Parliament in 2009.
And during a 2010 interview with ‘Reality Radio’, the 74-year-old said: “You have to recognise that the reality is they have a great deal of support, they have a great deal of respect from a lot of Palestinians who wouldn’t necessarily politically agree with them but recognise they are serious, hard-working and they are not corrupt.”
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