Socialist Jeremy Corbyn May Start His Own Party to Challenge Labour: Report

jeremy corbyn
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Kurt Zindulka

The former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn is reportedly considering forming his own party in response to being denied the whip in Parliament by his successor as leader, Sir Keir Starmer.

Jeremy Corbyn, the radical socialist MP for Islington North, and his allies are allegedly hatching a scheme to form a leftist political party and run in the next election as a challenge against the more centre-left Labour Party that emerged after he was deposed.

According to a report from The Telegraph, Corbyn has been urged by his leftist allies including his wife, Lauren Alvarez, to launch a new party.

The party could be rebranded out of Corbyn’s charity, the Peace and Justice Project, which aims to “bring people together for social and economic justice, peace, and human rights, in Britain and across the world.”

Should Corbyn go ahead with the plan, the Labour Party could see serious defections from MPs who have been sidelined during the Starmer era, it is claimed. The prospect of an insurgent leftist party could also serve to cripple any chance of Labour challenging Boris Johnson’s Tory Party.

Commenting on the report, however, Labour MP Charlotte Nichols said that she doesn’t believe that a “single member” of the Labour Party in the parliament would defect and join Corbyn.

Indeed, two of Corbyn’s staunchest allies, John McDonnell and Diane Abbott, are said to have expressed reluctance to defect in the Telegraph report.

However, Nichols said: “I firmly believe anyone defects from their party mid-term (whoever it’s to) should call a by-election accordingly.”

In UK politics, a member of Parliament can change party — called ‘crossing the floor’ — without triggering a confirmatory re-election for their position. Some choose to do so voluntarily, however, to demonstrate they retain the support of their constituents.

In October of 2020, Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party after a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission accused him of “serious failings” to confront antisemitism within the left-wing party when he was its leader.

While he refused to apologise and condemned the report as being “dramatically overstated for political reasons”, he ultimately was reinstated as a member of the party a month later after issuing a clarification that the issue of antisemitism was “neither exaggerated nor overstated”.

Though he was reinstated to the party, Sir Keir Starmer refused to allow the socialist MP to caucus with the Labour Party in the parliament, withholding the whip and thereby forcing him to remain an independent in the House of Commons.

Corbyn has remained active, however, notably appearing at several high-profile anti-Israel demonstrations in London last Spring during a re-escalation of the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

At a rally featuring placards reading “Zionist Israel = Nazi Germany”, Corbyn called on the UK to “end all military cooperation of any sort with Israel”.

In order to possibly rid itself of Corbyn for good, according to the Mail on Sunday, Labour is reportedly considering drafting former Labour MP Mary Creagh to challenge his seat in the next election.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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