Jeremy Corbyn won the Islington North constituency he has represented since 1983, but this is the first time he has been elected as an independent.
The former Leader of the Opposition defeated local Labour MP Praful Nargund, who had been selected as his candidate by the party’s executive committee in May. Corbyn received 24,120 votes to Nargund’s 16,873. Turnout for the election was 67.5%, down from the previous election. This is up from 71.6% in 2019.
Corbyn, 75, was blocked from standing as the Labour candidate in March 2023 by Prime Minister Keir Starmer but announced he would run as an independent shortly after the election results were announced and was expelled from the Labour party.
In October 2020, Corbyn was expelled from the party and lost his position as Leader of Parliament after saying anti-Semitism within the Labour Party had been “grossly exaggerated for political reasons” following a scathing report from an equality watchdog.
He rejoined the party 19 days later but will hold his seat as an independent until a general election is called after Starmer refused to reinstate him as party leader.
Corbyn’s campaign faced the challenge of overcoming his long association with the Labour Party, as many voters in his North London constituency were apparently unaware that he was not the party’s candidate in this election. Despite struggling without Labour’s electoral data and infrastructure, Corbyn’s campaign relied on the support of door-to-door volunteers from across the UK.
Last week, 72 constituency Labour councillors signed an open letter in support of Mr Corbyn, risking expulsion from the party, stating that they believed local councillors had been “denied the right to choose their own candidate”.
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Mr Corbyn’s victory marks the end of a tradition of Islington North voting Labour since the 1937 by-election.
