Labour has kicked off candidate selection to run in Jeremy Corbyn’s seat of Islington North, with the contender for the seat expected to be confirmed by 1 June.
Corbyn, who is still suspended for comments he made in the aftermath of the equalities watchdog report into antisemitism in Labour, has been barred from standing again for the party. He won the seat with a majority of more than 26,000 in 2019.
The former Labour leader is likely to run as an independent in the seat he has held for more than 40 years. Labour insiders said local members would not take part in shortlisting candidates, which would be determined by the party’s ruling national executive committee.
Applications will close on Monday with shortlisting taking place over the following days. A postal ballot and online voting will take place over the next weekend with an online hustings on 29 May. The final result will be announced on 1 June.
Although the party is expected to impose a shortlist of candidates on the local constituency party, it will then be up to members to decide. There has been significant anger in the constituency party about the exclusion of Corbyn, with many members still loyal to him.
Senior insiders said there was a recognition in the party that they would need a local candidate to beat the former Labour leader.
They added that there were several “strong contenders” for the seat, believed to include the Islington councillor Praful Nargund, who runs a chain of IVF clinics, and the transport campaigner Christian Wolmar who has stood as the Labour candidate in Richmond.
An outside contender for the seat is the journalist Paul Mason.
Corbyn may attempt to apply to be the candidate for the seat, though he would be blocked at shortlisting stage by the NEC.
The grassroots group Momentum, which backed Corbyn’s leadership, said: “Jeremy Corbyn has loyally represented the people of Islington North for over 40 years and remains a Labour member of more than 50 years. His own local party voted unanimously to express support for Jeremy and assert their right to choose their own parliamentary candidate.
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“Labour members in Islington North should decide if they want Jeremy to continue as their Labour candidate, not Keir Starmer’s Westminster clique. Democracy demands it.”
Corbyn was formally excluded from standing again by a motion approved by the NEC in March last year, saying his candidacy would “significantly diminish” Labour’s chance of “winning the next general election”.
The MP, who led the party to a heavy defeat in 2019, was suspended from the party by Keir Starmer after he said antisemitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated” by critics of his leadership and Labour. The NEC readmitted Corbyn to the party but Starmer refused to return the Labour whip.
