Starmer Strips Corbyn of Candidacy, Says UK Labour ‘Not Going Back’ to Antisemitism

Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer speaking in east London, following the Equality and Human Rights Commission's announcement that it has concluded its monitoring of the Labour Party, on Feb. 15, 2023. Stefan Rousseau/PA Media

Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-left former Labour leader, will not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate at the next general election, party leader Sir Keir Starmer has confirmed.

Starmer said that Labour is now “unrecognisable” from its form during Corbyn’s leadership from 2015 to 2020, when it was plagued by allegations of antisemitism among party ranks.

Corbyn was suspended from the party in October 2020 after he said the findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) investigation into allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party “dramatically overstated” the problem “for political reasons.”

Jeremy Corbyn, then-leader of the Labour Party, pauses while speaking at the vote count in his Islington North constituency in London, on Dec. 12, 2019. Leon Neal/Getty Images

He got his party membership back in the following month, but Starmer has refused to give back his party whip, which means that he has been kept out of the parliamentary Labour Party and has continued to be classed as an “independent” MP.

In a speech on Wednesday, Starmer welcomed the EHRC’s decision to lift the party out of two years of special measures over its past failings on antisemitism.

He invited those on the far left of Labour to leave the party if they oppose his reforms, and confirmed Corbyn himself will be stripped of his candidacy for Labour.

“Let me be very clear, Jeremy Corbyn will not stand at the next general election as a Labour Party candidate,” Starmer said, adding: “What I said about the party changing, I meant, and we are not going back.”

In reaction, Corbyn said Starmer’s decision is a “flagrant attack” on democracy, adding: “This is a divisive distraction from our overriding goal: to defeat the Conservative Party.”

‘You Can Leave’

The Labour leader reiterated his vow that anyone who plays down antisemitism will be treated with “zero patience or tolerance” and acknowledged it is not “the end of the road” for tackling the issue.

“I understand that some people won’t like the changes we’ve made but I say this with all candour, the Labour Party is unrecognisable from 2019 and it will never go back,” he said.

“It will never again be a party captured by narrow interest, it will never again lose sight of its purpose or its morals. And it will never again be brought to its knees by racism or bigotry.

“If you don’t like that, if you don’t like the changes we’ve made, I say the door is open and you can leave.”

Asked whether he will now proscribe Momentum, the Labour faction that supports Corbyn, Starmer said he does not have the power to take that action but reiterated his open-door policy to opponents.

Commenting on Starmer’s decision to block Corbyn from representing Labour in his constituency in the next election, Momentum said: “It should be for Labour members in Islington North to decide their candidate—that is their democratic right.”

If Corbyn decides to run as an independent candidate for the constituency he has represented for 40 years, Labour would come up against his personal popularity in Islington North as well as a potentially distracting row with the left-winger.

However, Diane Abbott, one of Corbyn’s oldest allies, said he has “no intention of standing as an independent.”

Asked whether she would like to see him running without Labour’s backing, the former shadow home secretary told the News Agents podcast: “No, no. Jeremy has been a member of the Labour Party from before either of you were alive.”

Harassment and Discrimination

In 2020, the EHRC found the Labour Party in breach of the Equality Act (2010) for political interference in antisemitism complaints, failure to provide adequate training to those handling antisemitism complaints, and harassment.

On Wednesday, the watchdog announced that 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.

EHRC chief executive Marcial Boo said: “On 31 January 2023, we concluded our monitoring as we were satisfied that the party had implemented the necessary actions to improve its complaints, recruitment, training, and other procedures to the legal standards required. This will help to protect current and future Labour Party members from discrimination and harassment.

“No organisation is above the law. Every employer and every public body must take active steps to address racism and all other forms of illegal discrimination. We are pleased that our investigation and action plan has had the desired impact in this case.”

Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “At the next election I believe all British Jews will once again be free to vote according to their political persuasion rather than out of fear.”

However, she offered a “note of caution” that there are still “issues with antisemitism, particularly within the grassroots” of the Labour Party.

Lily Zhou and PA Media contributed to this report.