Labour fears Corbyn may take on Khan in London mayoral vote

JEREMY CORBYN is coming under mounting pressure to humiliate Sir Keir Starmer by standing as a Leftwing independent candidate in the next London mayoral election.

The ex-leader is being urged by supporters to emulate Ken Livingstone and defy Labour by going up against the party’s official candidate for the coveted post in 2024.

Mr Livingstone famously stood as an independent mayoral candidate in 2000 – after failing to win the Labour nomination – and won.

One key Corbyn ally said last night that the former Labour leader, currently forced to sit as an independent MP, was so popular that he

could emulate Mr Livingstone’s success in 2000 and defeat current Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan.

The ally said: ‘Jeremy would win and plenty of people around him are urging him to do it.’

Yesterday, Mr Livingstone – who returned to the Labour fold after his stint as London Mayor but resigned his membership in 2018 over antisemitism allegations – said that Mr Corbyn would be ‘bloody good’ in charge of the capital. He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I will support Jeremy whatever he runs for. He’s a man of absolute integrity.’

However, Mr Livingstone, who denied the antisemitism claims against him, also backed the exLabour leader to hold on to his Islington North Commons seat as an independent.

Even though he has represented the seat since 1983, Mr Corbyn is currently barred from standing there again as Labour’s candidate after claiming two years ago that antisemitism in the party on his watch was exaggerated. He no longer has the Labour whip at Westminster.

Mr Livingstone said: ‘I’m sure he will win if he stands as an independent. Jeremy’s been there for nearly 40 years – he’s incredibly popular.’

However, Sir Keir’s allies reacted furiously to any talk of Mr Corbyn mounting a bid to become London Mayor, warning that he could split the Labour vote and let a Tory win the contest in 2024. Last night, Mr Corbyn signalled that his priority was to stand again as Labour’s candidate in his current Commons seat where he won with a majority of more than 26,000 at the last General Election. He said: ‘I am proud to be the MP for Islington North.

‘The whip was wrongly removed, and it should be restored. So, too, should the rights of Labour Party members to choose who represents them in Parliament.’

The row broke out after Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting was caught saying that Mr Corbyn, 73, had ‘gone senile’ after the former leader tried to raise a point of order after Prime Minister’s

Questions last week. Mr Streeting later apologised.

But this paper understands that Sir Keir’s top team wants to boot his predecessor, who is still a Labour rank-and-file member, out of the party. The move will be seen as a way of countering Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s tactic of reminding voters that Sir Keir campaigned for Mr Corbyn to be PM in 2019 and served on his front bench.

Some Labour insiders fear the tactic could deter voters in the crucial Red Wall seats the party needs to win back from the Tories.