Corbyn talks of ‘new movement capable of challenging stale two-party system’

Jeremy Corbyn has said the “grassroots model” that led to his election as an Independent MP in Islington North could become a “new movement” that will challenge the “stale” political status quo.

The former Labour leader beat his old party to hold his seat, which he has represented since 1983, in last week’s election.

He said the “people power” behind his victory marked “the start of a new politics”.

In an op-ed in The Guardian, Mr Corbyn wrote: “Here in Islington, we are planting the seeds for a new way of doing politics.”

He said he would hold a monthly “people’s forum”, which would be “a shared, democratic space for local campaigns, trade unions, tenants’ unions, debtors’ unions and national movements to organise, together, for the kind of world we want to live in”.

“That is what real democracy looks like,” he said.

Mr Corbyn said “public discontent with a broken political system will only grow as the Government fails to make the real change that people expect”, as he called for this “energy” to be “mobilised”.

“That’s why our campaign will organise with those who have been inspired by our victory to build community power in every corner of the country.

“Once our grassroots model has been replicated elsewhere, this can be the genesis of a new movement capable of challenging the stale two-party system.”

The veteran MP predicted the movement “will eventually run in elections”.

Mr Corbyn announced he was standing as an independent a few days after Rishi Sunak called the General Election, causing a headache for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

It was announced that day that he had been expelled from the party, with Sir Keir – who sought to distance himself from his predecessor’s leadership throughout the campaign – saying Mr Corbyn’s days of influencing Labour were “over”.

Mr Corbyn has been suspended by Labour since 2020 after he refused to fully accept the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s findings that the party broke equality law when he was in charge and said antisemitism had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.

Mr Corbyn beat his Labour rival by more than 7,000 votes last Thursday.

First elected to Parliament in 1983 as MP for Islington North, Mr Corbyn rose from rebel backbencher, regularly voting against the party whip, to the shock winner of the party leadership contest amid “Corbynmania” in 2015.

Under his turbulent time as leader, Labour received its biggest election upsurge since 1945 in the 2017 snap general election, before suffering its worst defeat since 1935 in 2019 against Boris Johnson.