Election: Corbyn Accused of Hurting Islington

The battle to knock Jeremy Corbyn out of the House of Commons has taken a more personal turn, with a dissident ex-Labour candidate claiming that Corbyn’s long history as a rebellious Left-winger has seen his Islington North constituency penalised by both Labour and Conservative Governments.

Michael Foster, a Labour donor and former party candidate who is challenging Corbyn for his seat, claims that the Labour leader’s personal record of defying Labour whips more than any other MP during his 34 years in Westminster has reduced national funding for Islington’s stubborn social problems and poverty.

“Islington is five miles from the seat of government at Westminster but Jeremy has spent so long antagonising his colleagues there, that few ministers over the years have responded to Islington’s need for increased funding and resources,” Foster said in a social media message to local voters.

Corbyn voted against the majority Labour position in the House of Commons 487 times during the Blair and Brown Governments, according to the website www.publicwhip.org.uk, cementing bis status as an unhappy outsider during the 13 years of Labour Government.

Shifting his attacks on Corbyn from his role as Labour leader to his impact on Islington North, Foster claimed that Corbyn’s lack of clout with ministers was one of the reasons that the constituency ranks highly on national tables of poverty and social deprivation.

Despite Islington’s gentrification and image “as the trendy liberal heart of North London, the north of the borough in fact remains a largely under-resourced area with an array of stubborn social problems which directly affect the poorest constituents in the borough,” said Foster, an agent who has represented celebrities such as Chris Evans.

Islington is the 13th most deprived of England’s 300-plus local authority areas. It has one of the highest child poverty rates in London (38%) and one of its highest rates for out-of-work benefit recipients (12.2%), with more than 40% of its 19-year-olds leaving school without an A-level equivalent qualification.

Twelve days into a crowdfunding attempt to raise £14,000 for his campaign Foster had raised just £1,470, and his candidacy is actually likely to further split the anti-Corbyn vote among an already fractured field of more established rivals to the 67-year-old Labour leader.

In 2015 Corbyn won 60% of the vote, ahead of the Conservatives with 17%, Greens with 10%, Lib Dems with 8% and UKIP 4%.

The Lib Dems and Greens have ignored pleas from local pro-EU campaigners for them to cooperate and support one Left-leaning, pro-Europe candidate in a seat where 78% of voters opposed Brexit in last year’s referendum and where there is considerable anger at Corbyn’s half-hearted opposition to Brexit.

That was a lucky break for Corbyn, as a more hard-headed strategic approach by the Lib Dems and Greens could have seen those parties splitting between them Corbyn’s seat and the neighbouring Islington South & Finsbury, held by close Corbyn ally and accident-prone campaigner Emily Thornberry.

The Lib Dems may be the most viable challengers to Corbyn, as their poor result in 2015 was part of a national backlash against its five-year coalition with the Tories, and in the previous two elections the Lib Dems came second with an average of 29% to Corbyn’s 53%. Lib Dem candidate Keith Angus has done little door-knocking, while his opponents have pointed out on the doorstep that he works for HSBC, labelling the 41-year-old financial security worker “a banker”.

Green candidate Caroline Russell has mounted the most active ground campaign, drawing on volunteers from Islington South where her party is making a less intensive effort. A local resident for 25 years, Russell is well known locally as the only non-Labour member of the 48-seat Islington Council. She is also a member of the London Assembly and the Green Party’s national spokesperson on public transport.

When challenged on the doorstep about her party’s ability to attract tactical votes from the Conservative and Labour parties, Russell insists that she is better positioned than Keith Angus as many voters have still not forgiven his party for the Cameron-Clegg coalition, when the Lib Dems infuriated supporters by hiking tuition fees.

The Conservatives have selected as their candidate a decorated Afghanistan War veteran, Army Captain James Clark, who hopes to capitalise on division and confusion within Labour about Corbyn’s approach to the UK’s nuclear arsenal.

“I have witnessed the sacrifice our brave service men and women make to protect the people of this great United Kingdom; at the very least they should be confident in the fact our PM would make the tough decisions necessary to protect us all,” says Clark.

Clark, 31, is likely to benefit from the Tory party’s strong poll lead under Theresa May, and signs in recent council elections and national polling that a large slice of the pro-Brexit vote is shifting from UKIP to the Conservatives.

Corbyn’s disastrous personal approval ratings mean that his vote seems certain to be well down on his 60% support in 2015 but the failure to organise a tactical voting campaign behind one leading anti-Corbyn candidate means any backlash against him will be split between the Tories, Lib Dems, Greens, Foster and five other candidates.

That means the result of Corbyn’s ninth election race in Islington North may resemble his first, in 1983, which was the only time he has received less than 50% of the vote. With Margaret Thatcher crushing Labour’s Left-wing leader Michael Foot, Corbyn won with just 40.4% of the vote. The Tories polled 25.3%, the Social Democratic Party 22.4% and the incumbent MP John O’Halloran took 11.1% as an “Independent Labour” candidate after leaving the Labour Party for the SDP and then being disendorsed by that party.

 

by Peter Wilson

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