Jeremy Corbyn has demanded Sir Keir Starmer reinstate him to the Parliamentary Labour Party – refusing to rule out standing as an independent at the next General Election if he refuses to do so.
In an interview with the Standard, the former Labour leader said he hoped to stand at the next General Election as a Labour candidate and stressed that at the age of 72 he has no plans to retire.
“What I hope is that the Parliamentary Labour Party will recognise that they are in an untenable position,” he told The Standard on Wednesday as he urged Sir Keir to restore the Labour whip to him shortly after the May 5 local elections.
But the Labour leader has said there is no way back for his predecessor unless he apologises over comments he made in response to a report on anti-Semitism in the party in October 2020.
Mr Corbyn has repeatedly refused to apologise and his handling of the anti-Semitism row was partly blamed by many Labour MPs for the party plunging to a historic election defeat in 2019.
However, the Islington North MP, urged Sir Keir to “move on” from the rift and in comments which threaten to reignite Labour splits he unleashed a strongly worded attack on the Labour leader’s decision to deny him the party whip.
“I think it’s wrong, it’s unfair, and I should be reinstated. And indeed, an awful lot of people in Islington think exactly the same,” he said.
In a sign of division between him and Sir Keir, he also revealed they had not spoken for about two years.
Mr Corbyn, who has been MP for Islington North for nearly 40 years, was suspended from the Labour party he led between 2015 and 2019 after he suggested the scale of anti-Semitism in the party had been “dramatically overstated”.
His remarks came in response to a critical report by the Equality and Human Rights Commision into how Labour handled anti-Semitic complaints by party members while he was in charge.
Labour’s National Executive Committee readmitted him to the Party after he walked back his comments but in a move aimed at distancing himself from the former hard left leadership, Sir Keir suspended the whip and said Mr Corbyn would not be able to return unless he apologised.
In an interview with the BBC last November Sir Keir said “it may be the case” that Mr Corbyn’s situation may be unresolved at the time of the next general election.
Some MPs believe that the Labour leader casting Mr Corbyn into the political wilderness shortly before the next election, by making it clear he would not be allowed to stand for Labour, would send a powerful message to voters that the party has moved on from his era.
Mr Corbyn said he had not spoken to Sir Keir “for about two years” but suggested the period after the local elections on May 5 - where Labour hopes to take advantage of the Partygate scandal and concerns over the cost of living crisis - would be “a good opportunity to right what I believe to be a wrong”.
Asked what he would say to him if he spoke to him today, he replied: “I’d say I think Keir we need to move on. And I think we just need to move on and I should be reinstated into the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] because there has been no process taken against me by the PLP.
“All I’ve had is a letter saying I’m not a member of the PLP? This is not a good look for the Labour Party if it doesn’t even have a process for that as far as the parliamentary Labour Party is concerned.
“I sit amongst Labour MPs. I talk to a lot of Labour MPs all the time, but it feels irritating the way I’ve been treated. And I have not indulged in any kind of personal attacks of vendettas and don’t intend to as far as I’m concerned. My responsibility is to be a member of parliament to represent my constituency, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Mr Corbyn, who may be 73 at the time of the next election likely to be in May 2024, says he has no plans to walk away from politics, drawing comparisons with US President Joe Biden, who is 79, and former President Donald Trump, who is 75.
“I am fine, I am fit and healthy and active,” he said. “And so I am excited by doing the job, excited by representing people and happy to carry on.”
In a message to his north London constituents, he added: “I’m proud to be your member of parliament, and I hope to be your member of Parliament in the future as a Labour MP.”
Asked if he would stand as an independent if he is not readmitted to the Labour party, he replied, “let’s deal with that bridge when we get to it”.
Pressed on why he won’t apologise for his comments on the EHRC report, he said: “I’ve explained many times that my total abhorrence of anti semitism in any form.
“The EHRC did an investigation. And on the day concerned, I accepted the EHRC report and said that it should be implemented, and I would support the implementation of it.
“And we should move on from that point. Were people hurt? Sadly, yes, some people were. But what has happened since then has not been good.
“We now have a sadly disproportionate number of left wing socialist Jews being suspended from party membership on grounds of anti semitism.
“And it’s not a good situation. So I just think we need to recognise racism in any form is wrong, anti semitism is vile, as is Islamophobia, anti black racism, and so on. And so we just have to do that and make sure we are a racist free zone as a party and that is what I was always determined to achieve.”
Labour has been contacted for comment.
