Former Labour leader sets up forum aimed at offering electoral challenge against Labour and Conservatives
Jul 12, 2024
Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, now an independent MP, has launched a new political strategy aimed at challenging the “stale two-party system” in the UK.
In a column published in the Guardian on Friday, Corbyn said he would begin a monthly “People’s Forum” in his constituency of Islington North, which he said was a “shared, democratic space for local campaigns, trade unions, tenants’ unions, debtors’ unions and national movements to organise” for the future.
He said he believed that such forums could be replicated around the country, and form part of grass-roots campaigning which will help people to “stand up for themselves and against those who have ignored their demands for peace and humanity”.
Corbyn said that the movement would not initially entail the creation of a new political party, but would eventually provide an electoral challenge.
“I have no doubt that this movement will eventually run in elections,” he wrote.
“However, to create a new, centralised party, based around the personality of one person, is to put the cart before the horse. Remember that only once strength is built from below can we challenge those at the top.”
He said the movement would grow as long as issues like child poverty, and Israel’s war on Gaza, went unaddressed by those in power in the UK.
“This is just the beginning. It is the beginning of a movement that can win with – and for – communities all over the country. People in power underestimate the power of people at their peril,” he said.
The move comes amid calls for a British left-wing alliance, akin to the New Popular Front (NPF) in France – an electoral alliance of Socialists, Greens, Communists and France Unbowed – which won the most seats in this month’s French parliamentary elections.
On Thursday, the campaign group The Muslim Vote called for a political alliance between left-wing parties such as the Green Party and independent groups to challenge the Labour government in future elections.
Former independent lawmaker George Galloway, who leads the Workers Party of Britain, wrote on X last week: “Mr Corbyn must be our #Melanchon He is the best leader to unite all forces behind him in a Popular Front. We in the @WorkersPartyGB and our 210,000 voters will follow him.”
However, left-wing activists told Middle East Eye last week that Galloway’s party would struggle to form part of an alliance with elements of the British left, due to socially conservative views and hostility towards the Green Party’s agenda on climate change.
‘Palestine was on the ballot’
Last week, Corbyn was re-elected as an MP, winning almost 50 percent of the vote in Islington North, the London constituency he has represented for more than four decades.
Corbyn led Labour from 2015 to 2020 but was barred by the party from standing as a candidate and then expelled when he announced his intention to run anyway.
He nonetheless won 49.2 percent of the votes (24,120) in Islington North to win the seat for the 11th time. Labour candidate Praful Nargund, a local councillor, was second with 34.4 percent (16,873).
“Palestine was on the ballot,” the veteran left-winger and lifelong pro-Palestine campaigner told MEE last week after his election victory.
“And I promise to stay true to my word to stand up for the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination.”
Corbyn had the parliamentary whip withdrawn by his successor Keir Starmer in October 2020 after saying that claims of antisemitism in the party during his time as leader had been “overstated” for political reasons.
Though he was readmitted to the party as a member in November 2020, it refused to let him continue as a Labour MP.
He announced he would stand as an independent when the election was called on 24 May, after which Labour expelled him from the party.
Corbyn is amongst a number of independent candidates elected in constituencies previously held by Labour, where opposition to the party has been fuelled by criticism of its failure to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza until months into the war.
Independent candidate Shockat Adam unseated Jon Ashworth, a prominent member of Labour’s shadow cabinet, in the East Midlands constituency of Leicester South.
In the northwestern ex-industrial town of Blackburn, Adnan Hussain unseated Labour’s Kate Hollern, while independent Ayoub Khan pulled off a shock win against Labour’s long-standing parliamentarian Khalid Mahmood in Birmingham’s Perry Barr.
Meanwhile, independent Iqbal Hussain Mohamed earned a resounding victory in the West Yorkshire constituency of Dewsbury and Batley against Labour’s Heather Iqbal. Mohamed won 15,641 votes compared to Iqbal’s 8,707.
Labour frontbencher Thangham Debbonaire also lost her Bristol seat to Green co-leader Carla Denyer.
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