Jeremy Corbyn will not be Labour candidate at next election, vows Keir Starmer

Sir Keir Starmer has said that former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will not stand for the party in the next general election, as he pledged to take a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, the leader of the opposition reiterated his apology “to all those who were hurt” and “who suffered the most appalling abuse” and insisted that, under him, Labour had changed “permanently, fundamentally, irrevocably”.

Starmer’s comments mark his strongest break yet with Corbyn, who served as leader between 2015 and 2020, and come after the UK equalities watchdog said it was “content with the actions” taken by Labour to address antisemitism.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission said it had “concluded [its] monitoring” at the end of January because it was “satisfied that Labour had implemented the necessary actions to improve its . . . procedures to the legal standards required”.

Welcoming the EHRC’s decision as an “important moment”, Starmer said it also represented “a moment to apologise once again”.

“To all those who were hurt, to all those who were let down, to all those driven out of our party, who no longer felt it was their home, who suffered the most appalling abuse, today, on behalf of the entire Labour party, I say: sorry,” he said.

Insisting that it would “never again” be captured by “narrow interests”, Starmer also confirmed that Corbyn would not represent the party at the next election. “What I said about the party changing, I meant, and we are not going back, and that is why Jeremy Corbyn will not stand as a Labour candidate.”

At present, Corbyn sits as an independent MP for Islington North after he was suspended from Labour in October 2020.

Corbyn’s suspension came after the EHRC said in October 2020 that its probe into antisemitism in the party had “identified serious failings in leadership” and “an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints”.

The watchdog, which began its investigation in May 2019, called on Labour to produce an “action plan” and found that “antisemitism . . . could have been tackled more effectively if the leadership had chosen to do so”.

Corbyn’s comments after the report’s publication in 2020, whereby he suggested that the extent of antisemitism within the party had been overstated, prompted Starmer to withdraw the whip from him.

Acknowledging that his job was not yet “complete”, Starmer on Wednesday said that his “zero tolerance” stance on the matter was part of a push to “bring this party back to the British people”.

Labour would “never again lose sight of its purpose or its morals. And it will never again be brought to its knees by racism or bigotry.

“If you don’t like that, if you don’t like the changes we have made, I say the door is open and you can leave.”

In a statement, Corbyn described Starmer’s pledge to bar him from standing as “a flagrant attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour party members” and a “divisive distraction” from winning the next election.

“Any attempt to block my candidacy is a denial of due process, and should be opposed by anybody who believes in the value of democracy.”