THE Labour candidate for Carlisle has welcomed the decision taken by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) not to allow former leader Jeremy Corbyn to stand as a candidate at the next general election.

The NEC voted 22 to 12 to approve a motion from current party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, to prevent Labour endorsing Mr Corbyn to stand in his Islington North constituency in London.

Mr Corbyn is currently an independent MP after the party suspended him following an Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) review into antisemitism within Labour under his leadership.

In his statement on the EHRC's report into antisemitism in the Labour Party released in 2020, Mr Corbyn said: "Antisemitism is absolutely abhorrent, wrong and responsible for some of humanity’s greatest crimes. As leader of the Labour Party I was always determined to eliminate all forms of racism and root out the cancer of antisemitism. I have campaigned in support of Jewish people and communities my entire life and I will continue to do so.

“The EHRC’s report shows that when I became Labour leader in 2015, the Party’s processes for handling complaints were not fit for purpose. Anyone claiming there is no antisemitism in the Labour Party is wrong. Of course there is, as there is throughout society, and sometimes it is voiced by people who think of themselves as on the left.

“Jewish members of our party and the wider community were right to expect us to deal with it, and I regret that it took longer to deliver that change than it should.

“One antisemite is one too many,  but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media. That combination hurt Jewish people and must never be repeated."

Carlisle Labour candidate, Julie Minns said the party was ‘unrecognisable’ from when it was led by Corbyn and that a line had been drawn on the issue.

“The NEC decision not to endorse Jeremy Corbyn as a candidate is a clear sign that the Labour Party is unrecognisable from the one that lost so disastrously in 2019,” said Julie Minns.

“That antisemitism was allowed space to grow and fester under Corbyn’s leadership is shameful, and his continued claim that antisemitism was exaggerated is the reason why he will not be a Labour candidate at the next general election.

“The NEC has drawn a clear line under this issue, and under Keir Starmer’s leadership the Labour Party is firmly focused on our five missions to build a better Britain after 13 years of Conservative failure.”

The move has been welcomed by those towards the right of the party but has left many on the left unhappy.

The former Labour leader called it a 'shameful attack on party democracy' and said the decision to block him showed 'contempt' for the voters who had supported the party at the 2017 and 2019 elections.

Mr Corbyn has hinted that he may stand in his Islington North constituency, which he has represented for over 40 years, as an independent candidate at the next general election but a run has yet to be officially confirmed.

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