Labor leader Starmer wants to avoid Corbyn as a candidate

The British opposition Labor Party wants to prevent former leader Jeremy Corbyn from running in the general election scheduled for 2024.

Labor announced on Monday that his successor, Keir Starmer, would present a motion to the National Executive Committee this Tuesday. Observers expect the party leadership to comply with the request. Labor is well ahead of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives in all polls.

Corbyn won nearly two-thirds of the vote as Opposition leader in his London constituency in 2019, but Labor clearly lost the election to then Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Corbyn has been accused of anti-Semitism for years, but remains popular with the Labor left. The 73-year-old was expelled from the group in October 2020 over the allegations.

“Today’s Labor Party is unrecognizable from the party that lost in 2019,” the statement said. “Tuesday’s vote will confirm this and allow us to focus on our five missions to build a better Britain.”

Corbyn criticized the move. “Today Keir Starmer has broken his commitment to respecting the rights of Labor members and has denounced the democratic foundations of our party,” he said. Starmer is not ready to find a solution for everyone. (aeg/sda/dpa)