As we enter the final few hours of voting on general election day, independent candidate Jeremy Corbyn urgently needs the help of people in Islington North, London, and anywhere nearby.
Corbyn: it’s a toss up in Islington North
The Evening Standard reported that “Jeremy Corbyn could still pull off a shock win in Islington North, according to a new poll”. It noted that “a YouGov survey put him on 38% of the vote, just behind Labour’s candidate, local councillor Praful Nargund, who was on 43%.
But the pollster said the five-point gap meant it was a “toss up” who will win, a similar finding to a YouGov survey earlier in the election campaign”.
Of course, MRP polling is not entirely accurate at constituency level – nor is it designed to factor independent candidates into the mix. As the Evening Standard reported, YouGov said:
As in the previous iteration of our model, Jeremy Corbyn remains the strongest performing independent candidate.
Our model has Labour only narrowly ahead in Islington North, and we’d regard the seat as a toss-up.
So, it’s all hands on deck in Islington North – because it really could go either way.
Canary columnist Rachael Swindon posted on X that:
🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨
Jeremy Corbyn is within a whisker of making history in Islington North.
If @jeremycorbyn’s supporters show up today, we can win.
BUT…
Jeremy needs YOU to help get out the vote, NOW and throughout the day.
📍 Corbyn Campaign HQ, 89-93 Fonthill Rd, N4 3JH pic.twitter.com/ZkG0GEeMdI
— Rachael Swindon #WeAreCollective (@Rachael_Swindon) July 4, 2024
What choice is there? Jeremy or bust.
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. 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.
We only know a lot of this information thanks to the tireless work of the X account (and friend of the Canary) Red Collective, who has been digging into Nargund’s background.
However, even after all this Corbyn’s win isn’t certain. So, if anyone is available until 10pm tonight – then get yourself to Corbyn Campaign HQ, 89-93 Fonthill Rd, N4 3JH
Featured image via the Canary
