NEC vote to continue Sir Keir Starmer’s ongoing decision to bar Jeremy Corbyn sitting as a Labour MP

I will make the party in my image, to do so I will remove all traces of the past, all remembrances of what the party once stood for… -The dictator

Today’s meeting of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), was presented with a motion asking them to support a request to restore the Labour whip to Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) considered a motion, proposed by union representative Ian Murray and local party rep Nadia Jama, that described the suspension of the whip from Corbyn as “deeply divisive” and “disrespectful”.

The motion highlighted the divisive nature of the actions taken by party leader Sir Keir Starmer and urged Chief Whip Alan Campbell MP to restore the whip to Corbyn – after 14 months of sitting on opposition benches as an ‘independent’.

The motion urged Labour’s chief whip Alan Campbell to restore the parliamentary whip to Corbyn, who has been a Labour member but not a Labour MP since November 2020, when Keir Starmer decided not to restore the whip.

Campbell joined the Zoom meeting and said Corbyn has not apologised as requested or addressed any of the points in the letter sent to him by then chief whip Nick Brown in November 2020. Campbell did not take questions.

The motion goes on to say that “disbarring the sitting Member of Parliament from the process is extremely disrespectful to the people of Islington North who have overwhelmingly elected Jeremy Corbyn as their Labour MP for nearly four decades” and that “disbarring Jeremy Corbyn at the next General Election brings with it the added danger of local electorate punishing the Labour Party, should they not have the candidate they wish in place, creating a huge media storm in the process.”

However, the NEC has refused to overturn Starmer’s ‘diktat’ on his former boss. Unless the whip is restored to the former party leader he will not be able to stand as a Labour party MP in any future general election. By default, Labour will choose another candidate to represent the North Islington seat.

Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “Today’s NEC vote and Keir Starmer’s ongoing decision to bar me from sitting as a Labour MP is disappointing. I am grateful for and humbled by the support I’ve received, especially from my Islington North constituents. The struggle for peace, justice and sustainability goes on”.

Today’s NEC vote and Keir Starmer’s ongoing decision to bar me from sitting as a Labour MP is disappointing.

I am grateful for and humbled by the support I’ve received, especially from my Islington North constituents.

The struggle for peace, justice and sustainability goes on.

— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) January 25, 2022

This is obviously Starmer’s long term plan, a waiting game to force the situation whereby default Jeremy Corbyn will have to fight for his own seat as an independent.

The likelihood of Jeremy Corbyn winning his own seat is extremely high. There has been some speculation as to the candidate Jeremy Corbyn could face including the new member of the Labour Party Gary Neville but in reality, Labour must realise no matter who stands they have to consider that seat if they go against Jeremy Corbyn who has constantly garnered a massive majority in North Islington, in 2019 his vote share was 73.0% with 40,086 votes in his favour.

There is of course speculation that Jeremy Corbyn may start his own breakout party this has now become a little more of a likly hood following the NEC’s poor decision today.