Labour to select candidate for Jeremy Corbyn's seat

Labour has begun the process of choosing a new candidate to replace former party leader Jeremy Corbyn in London's Islington North constituency.

The 74-year-old has been sitting as an independent MP since 2020 when he had the Labour whip suspended.

A Labour source said the party had moved away from the man who led Labour between 2015 and 2020 and he was not part of the party's future.

A shortlist is due to be revealed on 23 May and a candidate declared on 1 June.

The former Labour leader, who has been the MP in Islington North since 1983, was blocked last year from standing for Labour at the next election by the party's governing body, the National Executive Committee (NEC).

Mr Corbyn is still a member of the Labour Party but sits as an independent MP in Parliament after being suspended over his reaction to a highly critical report on antisemitism, having said he thought its scale within Labour had been "dramatically overstated".

At the time, the Labour Party said Mr Corbyn had been suspended for "a failure to retract his words", but Mr Corbyn called the move "political".

In February, Mick Lynch, leader of the RMT union said he would support Mr Corbyn at the general election should he run for his seat again as an independent.

Mr Corbyn stepped down as party leader after the 2019 general election when he presided over Labour's worst electoral defeat since 1935.

A Labour source said the party was now unrecognisable from the one that lost in 2019.

Labour said applications had already opened for their next candidate for Islington North.

Journalist and broadcaster Paul Mason has already said, external he intends to apply for selection.

Railway historian Christian Wolmar, who was Labour's candidate in the 2016 Richmond by-election, has told the BBC he also intends to stand.

It is not clear whether the person Labour selects will have to face Mr Corbyn at the general election because he has hinted that he might stand as an independent candidate.

Last year, he told the BBC would not engage in "hypothetical" questions about his future in Parliament.

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