Alison McGarry wanted to support ‘good MPs and councillors’ – as well as Mr Corbyn

THE chair of Islington North Constituency Labour Party (CLP) has resigned after she was caught canvassing for independent candidate Jeremy Corbyn.

Alison McGarry, who has been a member of the Labour Party since she was 16, admitted that she was “supporting canvassers” for Mr Corbyn’s bid to keep his place in the Commons.

When approached by a Labour ward officer, it is understood that Ms McGarry tried to dodge him by ducking behind a hedge.

“A ward officer confronted me and I tried to avoid him,” she told the Tribune. Ms McGarry, who has headed up the CLP for the past seven years, then immediately submitted her resignation via email. She added that resigning from the party was “painful”.

“I found Islington North the most supportive, community engaged, and politically active CLP I have ever been part of during my 50 years in the Labour Party,” Ms McGarry said.

Asked why she did not hand in her resignation prior to helping Mr Corbyn’s campaign, she said: “It [the Labour Party] was part of me, it was my political home, I wanted to stay and support really good MPs like Diane Abbott.

“I wanted to support the really brilliant councillors that we have, I wanted to stay in the local party that we built from the roots.”

She added: “We were active in housing, union, and mutual aid campaigns, we worked to get a good council elected, because we were all part of Islington, this is our home.”

Mr Corbyn is standing an independent candidate after being blocked from standing for Labour in the constituency he has represented for the past 40 years.

His successor as leader, Sir Keir Starmer, said he had downplayed cases of anti-Semitism in the party – an accusation which Mr Corbyn rejects.