‘I’ll retire when I die’: Inside Jeremy Corbyn’s fight to hold on to his seat against Keir Starmer’s Labour

Three days after leading Labour to a humiliating general election defeat, Jeremy Corbyn slipped into a Christmas carol service in his Islington North constituency.

The congregation at St Mellitus church burst into a spontaneous chorus of “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow” as his home patch gave him a very different reception from voters nationwide.

“When he came in everybody stood up and clapped him – and I mean everybody. Everybody was clapping and crying at the same time,” recalled Nicola Baird, founder of the Islington Faces blog.

The admiration and popularity enjoyed by the area’s MP after 40 years in the job have left Labour chiefs with a tricky dilemma.

Mr Corbyn sits as an independent after losing the Labour whip because of his response to a damning report on antisemitism – although he was allowed to resume his party membership 15 months ago.

In theory, Islington North should be a cakewalk for Labour. One of the party’s safest seats, Mr Corbyn won almost two-thirds of the vote in 2019, piling up a majority of more than 26,000 over the Liberal Democrats in a distant second place.

Jeremy Corbyn joining the teachers’ strike on 1 February. Large numbers of Labour members in his constituency are fiercely loyal to him – and some regard him as a mentor – including many Labour members of Islington council, who occupy all but three of its 51 seats (Photo: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire)

And yet even his fiercest critics concede that he would prove a formidable opponent should he contest the next election as an independent, when he could draw on the practical support of long-standing party activists and on the respect he has won from many constituents for his diligence over four decades. One bookmaker has quoted odds of 5/4 on Mr Corbyn holding the seat next time round.

Ms Baird, a Green Party member, said he would stand a “very good chance of winning” if he went it alone in 2024.

“Jeremy Corbyn is super-popular, he is the most amazing constituency MP. Everywhere you go people will see him,” she said.

The historical precedents are not encouraging for him. None of the 12 MPs who stood as independents or for another party in 2019 came close to retaining their seats, with three even losing their deposits.

But Mr Corbyn is no ordinary politician and Philip Cowley, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, warned against writing off his chances.

“History is littered with the political corpses of those who stood against their old party and failed dismally,” he told Prof Cowley told i.

“I do, however, wonder if Corbyn would have a decent shout. The combination of being an active constituency MP and his unique status as a former party leader would make for an intriguing contest.”

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Supporters locally and nationally argue that such a showdown could be avoided if Mr Corbyn is judged to have done his penance and readmitted to the parliamentary party.

They include the former shadow Cabinet minister and Corbyn loyalist, Barry Gardiner, who told LBC: “He has made the apologies, he has done all the things that were asked of him – not all at once but he has done them at different times.”

One colleague scoffed: “Barry would say that, wouldn’t he? It’s simple – Corbyn needs to apologise properly and without qualification.”

Sir Keir Starmer shows no sign of welcoming his predecessor back into the fold. He recently said: “We have not got to the selection of that particular constituency yet, but I don’t see the circumstances in which Jeremy Corbyn will stand as a Labour candidate.”

Senior Labour figures are divided over how quickly to resolve the impasse.

One London MP insisted an official Labour candidate would have nothing to fear in a seat where its support was so deep and wide and predicted that residual loyalty to Mr Corbyn would melt away in the heat of battle.

However, the signs are that the Labour leadership will wait until close to the election to select a standard bearer to take on an independent Corbyn. Sources have told i that it was being treated like any other “safe” seat where the sitting MP was stepping down.

Part of the justification for any delay is to put off the inevitable furore over Mr Corbyn’s exclusion – and hope it will be subsumed in the hurly-burly of a countrywide election campaign.

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At this point, Sir Keir could appeal to Islington North’s Labour faithful to join the national wave of support propelling their party into office – even at the expense of deserting their local hero.

Another is that aspiring Labour MPs are hardly queuing up to join a battle that will inevitably prove fractious both on the streets and social media.

One London Labour MP said: “I can’t imagine ambitious young party members wanting to take this on – who’d want all that hassle? In the end I suspect it’ll be someone much older and known in the area who will take it on.”

Another senior Labour MP said: “I think there’s a possibility he could win, but I don’t think that’s a problem for Labour. The key issue is that the public wants to see clear water between Jeremy and the Labour Party. Him standing as an independent would do that.”

Mr Corbyn has avoided any suggestion that he could contest Islington North in anything other than Labour colours, repeatedly saying he is proud to be its MP, arguing that the whip was wrongly removed from him and should be restored.

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Were he to stand as an independent, many of the estimated 4,000 Labour members in the constituency would face a painful choice.

Large numbers are fiercely loyal to him – and some regard him as a mentor – including many Labour members of Islington council, who occupy all but three of its 51 seats.

Kaya Comer-Schwartz, the council leader, has given her public backing, declaring: “I hope they will allow Jeremy to be a Labour candidate. He’s a Labour member and he’s been a fantastic local MP.”

However, any Labour activist who campaigns for an independent Corbyn candidacy would face automatic expulsion.

Mr Corbyn said in a statement: “Day in day out, I represent the issues affecting my constituency: cladding, homelessness, rights for tenants, bus routes, and support for local teachers, firefighters, postal workers and others in their just and legitimate dispute with their employers.

“I am proud to represent the Labour movement in Parliament through my constituency. That is what I’m focused on and that is what I’ll continue to do. I suggest the Labour Party does the same.”

Allies have launched a Islington Friends of Jeremy Corbyn campaign group, which stresses it is not linked to Labour, demanding his return to the parliamentary party.

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It says: “The unjustified withdrawal of the whip is a continuing insult to all his constituents, but particularly for the 34,603 Islington North residents who gave him an overwhelming majority at the last general election to be their Labour Member of Parliament.”

Its organisers have decided not to go public, but Hussein Jaber, owner of the Coffee Bar in Finsbury Park, has no such qualms. He proudly displays a banner calling for Mr Corbyn’s reinstatement outside the Lebanese cafe where his MP regularly drops in for a falafel.

“He has done so many things, but more important he keeps helping people,” said Mr Jaber. “He is kind, he wants to talk to people. He wants to build more schools, more homes, more hospitals.”

One party insider summed up the quandary facing left-wing sympathisers: “I want him back in the parliamentary party. It’s a hodge-podge what’s happened to him, getting his membership back, but not the whip. It’s against natural justice.

“But I really hope he doesn’t stand as an independent if it comes to it – that’s a blind alley and would only harm the left.”

The potential stand-off could be resolved if Mr Corbyn, who will be 75 at the next general election date, decides to bow out of parliamentary life.

There is no chance of that, according to Mr Jaber: “I said to him that he should retire, but Jeremy said: ‘I will retire when I die.’”