Jeremy Corbyn barred from running as Labour candidate at next election
Keir Starmer confirms Jeremy Corbyn will NOT be allowed to run as a Labour candidate at the next election as he tells former leader’s hard-left followers to back him or quit the party as it gets anti-Semitism all-clear
Sir Keir Starmer today confirmed Jeremy Corbyn will not be allowed to run as a Labour candidate at the next election.
The party leader used a speech on anti-Semitism to rule out a return to the fold for his hard-left predecessor, who was suspended in late 2020 over his attitude towards a highly critical official probe into his time as leader .
Today the The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said it was ending its scrutiny of the party following improvements.
But Sir Keir, speaking in east London, said there was no longer a place for Mr Corbyn on the party’s benches in the Commons.
Asked by reporters whether he could say ‘categorically’ whether or not his predecessor as leader Mr Corbyn will stand for the party at the next election, Sir Keir said: ‘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.’
It means that the party will run a candidate against Mr Corbyn, 73, if he stands again in his Islington North seat. where he currently has a majority of 26,188.
The hard-left former party leader has been sitting as an independent since late 2020, after being suspended for his attitude to a highly critical probe into anti-Semitism under his watch.
But Sir Keir, speaking in east London , said there was no longer a place for Mr Corbyn on the party’s benches in the Commons.
It came after Sir Keir had earlier challenged his predecessor’s supporters to back his plans for power or quit the party altogether.
Today the EHRC, which had been scrutinising the party since ruling it was responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination more than two years ago, announced its action plan for Labour to address breaches of the Equality Act concluded at the end of January and it was satisfied with the reforms.
Sir Keir said the work of reforming the party was not over as he suggested any members with doubts about the need for change should leave Labour.
Writing in the Times he said: ‘The changes we have made aren’t just fiddling around the edges or temporary fixes. They are permanent, fundamental, irrevocable.
‘The Labour Party I lead today is unrecognisable from 2019. There are those who don’t like that change, who still refuse to see the reality of what had gone on under the previous leadership.
‘To them I say in all candour: we are never going back. If you don’t like it, nobody is forcing you to stay.’
Dame Margaret Hodge said Labour has ‘moved on from the very dark days of October 2020 when the EHRC judged us to be a party that was discriminating against Jews’.
On the future of former Labour leader Mr Corbyn she added: ‘I cannot think of any circumstances whatsoever under which Jeremy could stand as a candidate for the Labour Party at the next general election.
‘He’s been a master of his own destiny, he knew what he did in the past, he knew what he did when the EHRC came out and he’s only got himself to blame.
‘I’ve moved on from Corbyn, the party has definitely moved on from Corbyn, the country’s moved on from Corbyn if you see what Labour is gaining now in the polls and I think Corbyn is just part of the past, he’s a relic of yesterday.’
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