Eleven Constituency Labour Party (CLP) officers plus dozens of members and reps in Islington North have broken rank and signed an open letter in support of Jeremy Corbyn. The members know they will either be suspended or expelled – but clearly don’t care either way. It comes as controversy around the Labour Party’s general election candidate, Praful Nargund, grows.
Labour: denying democracy while Corbyn gains support
As LabourList reported (between obviously gritted teeth):
Eleven executive committee members of Islington North’s Constituency Labour Party have publicly vowed to support former MP Jeremy Corbyn’s independent campaign, either quitting or risking expulsion from the party…
A total of 72 members including them signed an open letter on Friday calling on voters in the constituency to back the former Labour leader, who is now standing as an independent.
Canary columnist Rachael Swindon shared the letter on X:
Breaking: A plea from resigning and former members of Islington North Labour Party: vote for Jeremy Corbyn, Independent.
Massive for @jeremycorbyn 🔥 pic.twitter.com/rwMdRfQ0rN
— Rachael Swindon #WeAreCollective (@Rachael_Swindon) June 28, 2024
Part of the letter, addressed to VOTERS in the constituency, read:
This year, we have been denied the right to choose our own candidate for the general election. Not a single person in Islington North has had a say. We believe in democracy – and the people of Islington North deserve an MP who believes in democracy too.
Of course, the letter was referring to the Labour Party’s imposition of Nargund as a candidate.
Praful Nargund: when a choice is no choice at all
As the Canary’s James Wright has been documenting, Nargund has been heavily involved in private healthcare. He was director of Create Health from March 2015 to December 2023. As Red Collective revealed on X, documents show Create Health made over £16m in profit from UK patients in just nine months while Nargund was director.
Comments also surfaced from Nargund in 2015 that raises more questions over his suitability to have power over our NHS as an MP. He said:
Privatisation of healthcare is very, very important and it’s about what the private sector can do to prove its worth to the public sector
Or rather, as Swindon summed up for the Canary:
The choice in Islington North couldn’t possibly be any clearer.
An assiduous constituency representative with a proven track record of delivering for the many, or a self-serving, Starmer-imposed mountebank that believes the “privatisation of healthcare is very, very important”, for the money.
An accomplished and genuinely popular man whose heart has been firmly placed in the middle of Islington North for some five decades, or a private health entrepreneur with the likability of vegetarian bacon that would privatise your heart, lungs, retinas, and reproductive organs for a guaranteed place in Keir Starmer’s “changed” Labour cabinet.
This seemed to be the sentiment of the Labour members’ letter, too. As it concluded:
Jeremy Corbyn has dedicated his life to this constituency. We hear on a regular basis from people how Jeremy has been there for them in their time of need, whether that is housing, education or anything else…
Jeremy has always been an honest, brave, and principled voice. We need that voice now more than ever.
We need Jeremy Corbyn
So, it seems the Labour Party has just lost a sizeable chunk of its membership base in Islington North. It may not care about that – but what it might care about is that this mutiny by dozens of members may seriously impact the general election result in the constituency on 4 July.
The Canary echoes what Swindon wrote.
Would the 75,000-strong electorate in the constituency of Islington North agree with the neoliberal Nargund’s assessment of the importance of private healthcare provision? They need an MP that is in it for the many, not the money.
They need Jeremy Corbyn.
Featured image via the Canary
