Labour rivals have tried to paint Jeremy Corbyn as old news at the start of the election campaign but a tussling scrum of reporters and camera crews were in battle to get pictures and interviews on Wednesday night’s launch

UNION campaigners across north London have announced this week that they will back Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign to be re-elected as MP for Islington North.

The North and North West London branch of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) has declared its support for Mr Corbyn after calling an emergency meeting on Wednesday.

Despite being a Labour-affiliated union, members voted unanimously to support Mr Corbyn’s bid to return to the Commons.

John Mensah, branch secretary for the CWU told the Tribune: “It was a pretty easy decision. We’ve had support from Jeremy for so many years, how could we not back him in his campaign?”

He added: “He’s been a friend of our union, and of the trade union movement as a whole. People would do well to remember that.”

The Tribune understands that branch members have not been told whether there will be repercussions for backing a candidate that will run against Labour.

Mr Mensah said: “When he [Mr Corbyn] was a Labour MP we publicly backed him then. To us, as a branch, nothing has changed.”

Islington National Education Union (NEU) officers also released a statement of support for Mr Corbyn’s candidacy.

They wrote: “Jeremy has always been a very good friend of and powerful advocate for Islington schools, their pupils, their parents and for creative education. He has fought alongside parents, staff, and other members of the local community for schools to be properly funded and protected from government spending cuts and other damaging policies.”

The statement continued: “He has also stood alongside teachers and school support staff when they have felt they had no other choice but to take action to defend their schools, their working conditions, pay and pensions.

Ken Muller, from the NEU, added: “Although our union is unaffiliated to any party, the officers of Islington NEU want to be there for him. We will face many battles in the future, whichever government wins on 4 July and we want Jeremy to be our MP to stand with us when we do.”

The RMT have also declared their support for Mr Corbyn. In February, Mick Lynch said at the War on Want conference: “We will support all sorts of people in this election, because we’re not affiliated. We will support Labour candidates. We will support socialist candidates. We will be supporting Jeremy Corbyn in the next election.”