Corbyn, who led Labour between 2015 and 2019, was initially expelled from the party and had the whip withdrawn in April 2020, under the leadership of his erstwhile ally Keir Starmer.
The expulsion came after Corbyn said that claims of antisemitism during his time as a leader had been “overstated” for political reasons, in response to an investigation into his handling of the issue.
For those out of the loop, Corbyn spoke out against israel which is a big no-no
IIRC the complaint was that he wasn’t harsh enough on his colleagues who said some things that could be interpreted as anti-semitic.
He was very obviously thrown out by israel
Anti-Semitism was generally not regarded as a big problem in the Labour Party before Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader in September 2015.
Mr Corbyn and his allies on the left had spent decades campaigning for Palestinian statehood, in contrast with the more nuanced position taken by many of his predecessors.
Under his leadership, there was an influx of new members, many of whom were vocal critics of Israel and who believed the UK, along with the US, should be tougher towards Israel, especially regarding its policies towards the Palestinians and its building of settlements in the occupied territories.
Sir Keir sacked his shadow education secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey in June 2020, saying she had shared an article containing an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
Mrs Long-Bailey had retweeted an interview with actor and Labour supporter Maxine Peake, later saying she had not meant to endorse all aspects of the article.
In the article, Ms Peake discussed the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, saying: “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”
You can see where this is going. Also the claim from Ms Peake is factually correct.
Best of luck to him. The Zionist orchestrated smear campaign, backed by the red Tories, was a disgrace and a chilling sign of how far the Israel lobby has ensconced itself into UK politics.
We need to push back against the AIPAC-isation of our democracy.
I was interested in this guy at the time. But in hindsight I’m glad he never made it to PM or Ukraine would have been worse. Can’t see him doing what was required as an PM.
What’s the point? He won’t win by any stretch of the imagination, and the majority of votes he does get will be taken from the pool of voters who would ordinarily vote labour. All this does is benefit the tories. He’d be far better supporting Starmer, even if he doesn’t really.
I dont think thats a relevant concern in Islington North. The Labour vote at the last election was 3 times all other parties combined and has been Labour (or a Labour spin off mp) since 1937, this is going to be a straight up 2 way fight between Corbyn and whoever Labour put up against him.
I guess he could be trying to intentionally play a spoiler role. Like, he’d have to want Labour policy changes, believe that Labour adopting those changes wouldn’t make Labour lose in the general election, and believe that he could split off enough votes to cause Labour to lose so that it has to give him those concessions if it wants him not to run.