Jeremy Corbyn: Labour vote to ban ex-leader standing as candidate

Labour’s governing body has voted to ban Jeremy Corbyn from standing as a Labour candidate at the next election.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) voted 22 to 12 to approve a motion from Sir Keir Starmer to prevent Labour endorsing Mr Corbyn. There is no appeal within Labour’s process.

Mr Corbyn is suspended from being a Labour MP and sits as an independent following a row over antisemitism.

On Monday, the former Labour leader said he was “not going anywhere”.

The BBC understands that Jeremy Corbyn is considering running as an independent candidate in Islington North.

Mr Corbyn criticised the Labour leader, claiming Sir Keir “has broken his commitment to respect the rights of Labour members and denigrated the democratic foundations of our party”, in a statement issued on Monday.

“I joined the Labour Party when I was 16 years old because, like millions of others, I believed in a redistribution of wealth and power,” he added.

“Our message is clear: we are not going anywhere. Neither is our determination to stand up for a better world.”

Last month, Sir Keir announced that Mr Corbyn would not be a Labour candidate, confirming months of speculation.

While running for leader of the Labour party, Sir Keir said Labour “should end NEC impositions of candidates” on local associations.

In a tweet, Sir Keir said local party members should select their candidates for every election.

The motion approved by the NEC states that allowing Mr Corbyn to stand would “significantly diminish” Labour’s chances of “winning the next general election”.

“It is is not in the best interests of the Labour Party for it to endorse Mr Corbyn as a Labour Party candidate at the next general election,” the text of the motion says.

The NEC has the power to endorse, or not endorse, a candidate selected for election.

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.

He has represented his constituency of Islington North as a Labour MP since 1983 until his suspension in October 2020.

The NEC readmitted Mr Corbyn to the Labour Party as a member in November 2020 – but he is blocked from representing the party in Parliament.

The Islington North Constituency Labour Party said it “rejects the NEC’s undue interference” in who it chooses as an MP.

The NEC vote “undermines our goal of defeating the Conservatives and working with our communities for social justice,” the group said in a statement.

“We believe in the democratic right of all constituency parties to choose their prospective parliamentary candidate.”

Jon Lansman, the co-founder of the Corbyn-backing Momentum campaign group, accused Sir Keir of acting like an “authoritarian”.

“Keir Starmer unfortunately is behaving as if he was some kind of Putin of the Labour Party. That is not the way we do politics,” he told Times Radio.

But, Mr Lansman said it would be a “big mistake” for Mr Corbyn to run as an independent.

Mr Corbyn was suspended as a Labour MP by Sir Keir for saying, in his response to the 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission (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.

The EHRC launched its inquiry in May 2019, after receiving 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.

In February, EHRC chief executive Marcial Boo said the watchdog was now “content with the actions taken” by the party after winding up a two-year monitoring process at the end of January.