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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Rachael Burford

Warning to Labour members who back Jeremy Corbyn and left wing candidates at next election

Labour members who back Jeremy Corbyn and other Left-wing candidates to run as independent MPs at the next election could face being stripped of their party membership.

A motion, due to be heard at the Liverpool conference, will see a crackdown on individuals who support the former Labour leader’s potential run.

The “Corbyn clause”, if approved, would mean party membership being stripped from anyone who gives “financial support or assistance” to a candidate who declares an intention to stand in opposition to Labour.

Mr Corbyn has hinted he will run as an independent in the Islington North seat he has held for 40 years after he was booted out of the parliamentary party over his response to a report on anti-Semitism.

He remains a Labour Party member.

One Labour MP said Mr Corbyn no longer has any place in the party and “neither do any of his supporters”.

Former Kensington MP Emma Dent Coad Labour was blocked from standing as a Labour MP last year in a move which sparked outrage among local campaigners.

The left winger, who is a councillor in Kensington, quit the party earlier this year and is raising funds to run as an independent candidate at the next General Election.

She told the Standard: “This is yet another desperate act of self-harm from Labour.

“The more the party tries to shut the mouths of members who think for themselves, who support what they see as true community candidates, the angrier people get.”

There are also suggestions that Diane Abbott, could launch an independent campaign if she is not allowed back in the parliamentary party.

The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP had the whip removed in April after she suggested in a letter to the Observer that Jewish, Irish and Traveller people were not subject to racism “all their lives”.

Jamie Driscoll, the left wing mayor of North Tyneside, who was excluded as a mayoral candidate after appearing on onstage with director Ken Loach, who has claimed antisemitism is being used to purge Labour of politicians on the left.

Mr Driscoll quit the party and has already raised more than £110,000 for an independent campaign backed by thousands of people.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves on Monday said Mr Corbyn will “absolutely not” be welcomed back as a Labour MP.

It follows him refusing to explicitly condemned Hamas for the terrorist atrocities in Israel.

He said he condemns “any acts of violence” but on the “terrible situation in Israel and Palestine... the way to end that, I think, is to end the occupation of Palestine by Israel”.

Asked if she could see a time when he would come back into the Labour fold, Ms Reeves told LBC: “Absolutely not.

“Jeremy Corbyn is no longer a Labour MP because of the antisemitism that he allowed to take root in the Labour Party.

“And I'm so proud that we've got, in Keir Starmer, a leader who stands squarely alongside Israel at their moment of need, and has rooted out antisemitism from my party, the Labour Party.”

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