Jeremy Corbyn [Simon Lamrock]

• ISLINGTON North should have a choice, Jeremy Corbyn should stand as an independent.

Jeremy Corbyn has held Islington North for Labour with huge majorities since 1983. He is popular and well known, with deep roots in the community.

He has an excellent record of serving constituents and has fought alongside local groups and campaigns to resist cuts and save services.

Yet Labour’s leadership have decided, without giving local people a voice, that Jeremy cannot stand as a Labour candidate at the next election.

Jeremy has a national and global political profile. He has campaigned for rights to welfare, health, housing, against violence, war, and racism, and for human rights.

Sir Keir Starmer’s team see this as undesirable in a Labour candidate, yet these were the founding social democratic principles of the Labour Party.

In their pursuit of power Labour has ditched these principles, diluting, or abandoning progressive policies such as taxing wealth, environmental action, opposing privatisation, workers’ rights and much else that would distinguish it from the Conservative Party.

Having stated that they will not raise false hopes for anything better, Labour is offering the country further austerity.

The defections and welcoming of Conservative MPs, most recently Natalie Elphicke, illustrates how little distinction there is between the two main parties.

Labour will likely say that as an independent candidate Jeremy Corbyn will split the vote and risk the Tories winning; but other parties, particularly the Conservatives, have never stood a chance in Islington.

With the Conservatives heading into political meltdown, a Labour government is almost a certainty. With Jeremy Corbyn as an independent candidate, the people of Islington can vote
for an alternative voice to challenge the Westminster austerity consensus and push for something better.

MARTIN FRANKLIN, N19