Labour is considering a high-profile former MP who lost her seat “thanks to Jeremy Corbyn” to compete for his seat in Islington North.
According to reports Mary Creagh is being prepped to run for election in the consistency, a seat held by the former Labour leader since 1983.
Corbyn holds a resounding 26,188 majority in Islington North, but he is currently barred from standing for Labour in the next General Election because of a bitter antisemitism row with Sir Keir Starmer.
Mary Creagh
The Mail on Sunday has reported that Creagh, who angrily confronted Mr Corbyn shortly after she lost her Wakefield seat as part of the Tories’ conquest of Labour’s Red Wall, could be in line to run against him if he chooses to stand as an independent.
She was filmed challenging the then leader in Portcullis House at Westminster after seeing him pose for photographers with young people as she was clearing out her office.
She said later that she “couldn’t understand why he was posing for photos when in my view he should be apologising” over the election defeat and its consequences.
Ms Creagh told the BBC: “I wondered why he was smiling and joking when I was in the House of Commons making my staff redundant before Christmas.”
“It was his leadership and his failure to tackle antisemitism [and] bullying in our party that led to this defeat.’
She also said that she had demanded to know why she had faced the threat of deselection in her Wakefield seat even as the general election campaign was getting underway.
New party
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Corbyn is considering establishing his own political party after privately accepting he will never be reinstated as a Labour MP.
The Telegraph has reported that he has been urged by many in his inner circle, including his wife Laura Alvarez, to upgrade his charity into a political party, and run under its banner at the next election.
If the party is established, it could tempt the defection of Left-wing MPs who are disaffected with the leadership of Starmer, and could take the name of the Peace and Justice Project, which Mr Corbyn established to coordinate his political activities after he was suspended from Labour.
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