The 74-year-old former party leader will run in his constituency of Islington North after being dropped from the Labor candidate list.
Former Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn will stand as an independent candidate in the UK general election on July 4, a move that could lead to a potential upset for the Labor Party in its north London seat.
Corbyn, who has represented the London constituency of Islington North for more than 40 years, announced on Friday that he would run for office to be “an independent voice for equality, democracy and peace”.
Labor authorities did not include the 74-year-old in the list of candidates for the position, which led to his decision to go it alone.
“I want our political parties to be democratic, but Islington North Labor Party members have been denied the right to choose a candidate,” Corbyn said in a video announcing his plan.
“So we have to stand up. We have to stand up and say: we are not going to take this anymore. We will assert our rights. That’s why I’m standing as an independent candidate for the people of Islington North.”
Labor suspended Corbyn in 2020 following a report into how complaints of antisemitism were handled under his leadership. Corbyn was Labor leader in the last election in 2019 and has held the Islington North seat since 1983.
Corbyn, who has been a vocal and long-standing critic of Israel’s policies on Palestine, acknowledged some of the conclusions during his leadership, adding that Jewish members of the Labor Party and the wider community “were right to expect us to deal with that”. But he added that he does not accept “all conclusions”.
An Al Jazeera investigation into the crisis found that senior Labor officials had, at the time, attempted to undermine support for Corbyn and, on some occasions, silence debate over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
Critic of Israel’s war in Gaza
Following the October 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Israel and the start of Israel’s relentless war in Gaza, which killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, Corbyn has again emerged as a critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the government’s general policy. Israeli.
In November, he was one of the first politicians to urge the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate what he described as a “genocide” in Gaza.
“People in Gaza have been living under blockade for the last 16 years and the Israeli occupation controls most of what goes in and out of Gaza,” he said, while also accusing politicians around the world of giving Israel “the light green to starve.” and massacre the Palestinian people in the name of self-defense.”
He said the Hamas-led attack cannot justify “the indiscriminate bombing and starvation of the Palestinian people, who are being punished for a heinous crime they did not commit.”
Since October, Corbyn has also joined several protests in the UK denouncing Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
On Thursday, UK political leaders began six weeks of campaigning before the country votes for a new government on July 4.
A Survation snap poll of voting intentions following Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement put the centre-left Labor Party on 48 points – its highest since November 2022 and 21 points ahead of the ruling Conservatives on 27 .
Survation said the results were consistent with Labor polls throughout 2023 and this year. Other research has suggested similar results.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
