Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn has represented the area in the House of Commons for more than 40 years

MORE than 1,000 residents have signed a petition asking Jeremy Corbyn to run as an independent candidate at the general election.

The Islington North MP has been blocked from standing as a Labour candidate after more than 40 years representing the area in the House of Commons.

Supporters don’t want to lose him and went door to door asking people to sign a petition aimed at convincing him to stand again – meaning nearly all of the signatories live in the constituency. Time is running out for prime minister Rishi Sunak to call a general election with the polls suggesting leader Sir Keir Starmer can take control this year.

But, locally, some traditional Labour supporters are among those who still want the opportunity to vote for Mr Corbyn, Mr Starmer’s predecessor at the top of the party.

Julia Bard, a member of Islington Friends of Jeremy Corbyn, said: “We launched this petition because Jeremy’s independent voice is needed now more than ever. Jeremy is not like other politicians.”

She said: “He is honest, principled and hardworking. So many people here rely on him for support, and he genuinely cares about the people he represents.”

The petition directly addresses Mr Corbyn, asking him “to continue as our MP, and to keep fighting for a better world”.

Mr Corbyn marked his four-decade parliamentary milestone last year but has been forced by Mr Starmer to sit away from the Labour ranks following a row over his response to an investigation into how complaints of anti-semitism were handled.

In 2020 an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission found Labour had broken equalities law, to which Mr Corbyn said among his response: “One anti-Semite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

Soon after these comments the parliamentary whip was removed from Mr Corbyn and the stand-off came to a head last week when Mr Starmer said there would be a new Labour candidate for the constituency at the next general election.

Despite that election now coming ever closer, Labour has yet to name who will be on the ballot paper in Islington North for the party, even though it has its candidates selected for nearly every other constituency in the country and party organisers have been told to be on an election footing.

Ms Bard said: “We’ve had an incredibly positive reaction on the doorstep – people in Islington North tell us that he has helped them with housing problems and getting access to services, with support for families devastated by knife crime, and in so many other ways.”

She added: “They see and talk to Jeremy in their schools and community centres; they recognise the dedication he has shown over the past 40 years and want him to carry on being their MP.”

While there has been intense speculation on what Mr Corbyn will do next, the MP has yet to set out whether he is considering a run as an independent or not.

He said: “I am humbled by the level of support from constituents I am honoured to serve. I am determined to carry on doing what I’ve done for the past 40 years: representing the people of Islington North in Parliament and campaigning alongside each other for a better world.”

This month, he warned that leaders of all the political parties were failing to get a grip on a series of issues affecting people during the cost of living crisis and he has spoken out about the response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East. In an opinion article for the Guardian on Tuesday, he wrote that the government’s foreign policy “treats some people as innocent civilians and others as collateral damage”.

He added that history will “remember the names of political figures that endorsed or enabled crimes against humanity” in Gaza, and said that “in the near future, our history books will shame those who had the opportunity to stop this massacre but chose to cheer on war instead”. The petition urging Mr Corbyn to stand again in Islington North was still attracting signatures online last night (Thursday).