Jeremy Corbyn supporters have drafted a plan to change Labour party rules, a move which could see the former leader reinstated as a Labour MP.
Under new plans by Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Labour members could have the final say in disciplinary action taken against MPs, The Guardian has reported.
The party’s local branches are reportedly asked to support the proposals and discuss them at the next Labour meeting in Brighton.
Suspended
The move comes after Corbyn was suspended from Labour in October 2020, after saying antisemitism in the party was “dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”
But he insisted he made it “absolutely clear” that “those who deny there has been an antisemitism problem in the Labour party are wrong”.
His party membership was given back to him after nearly three weeks, but he has still not had his party whip restored in the Commons and is currently serving as an independent MP.
Current Labour leader Keir Starmer saw thousands of pro-Corbyn members leaving the party since he took control of the Labour Party last year.
Starmer
Meanwhile, Starmer started taking a tough stance against the party’s hard left, banning far-left factions supporting Corbyn’s leadership.
Among the groups recently banned by labour are Labour Against the Witchhunt, which claims antisemitism allegations were politically motivated, and Socialist Appeal, which describes itself as a Marxist voice of Labour and youth.
Earlier this year, Corbyn said it was a “bit rich” to blame him for Labour’s poor election performance as four of Sir Keir Starmer’s predecessors weighed in on the party’s woes.
He told ITV News’s Calling Peston podcast: “I think it’s a bit rich to start blaming me for stuff that’s been done over the past year that I’ve had absolutely no part of whatsoever.
“I do think that dumping on somebody because they’re not there anymore is a bit weak really.”
Anti-semitism concerns ‘not exaggerated’
He attributed some of the losses to “disillusioned Labour voters” heading to the Green Party because they feel “the opposition has not been strong enough against the Government”.
“Do I take responsibility for it? No. Because we had a set of popular policies in the last manifesto,” he added.
When Corbyn was suspended, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that people who believed it was “exaggerated, or a factional attack” were “part of the problem” and “should be nowhere near the Labour Party either”.
But Corbyn acknowledged that concerns around anti-Semitism in Labour were not “exaggerated”.
He said: “To be clear, concerns about anti-Semitism are neither ‘exaggerated’ nor ‘overstated’.
“The point I wished to make was that the vast majority of Labour Party members were and remain committed anti-racists deeply opposed to anti-Semitism.”
Related: Reaction as Jeremy Corbyn is readmitted to the Labour Party
