10 AUGUST 2024 | NEWS
The former Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is in talks with four other independent MPs to form a new House of Commons grouping. The move would formalise nascent collaboration between them thus far.
The group would include Mr Corbyn himself, along with four other independents elected on pro-Palestinian platforms: Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Iqbal Mohamed.
The four MPs have already undertaken collaboration since their election, including with joint letters and amendments to the King’s Speech, the latter in combination with Green MPs.
Shockat Adam, who ousted Jonathan Ashworth to become the MP for Leicester South, told the BBC that the group was “looking at options that would give us more access to the levers of power”.
Should the group come to fruition, it could potentially increase the influence of the five MPs in Parliament.
Debates and select committees in the House of Commons are decided by party size, meaning the MPs would increase their chances of taking part.
Adam also told The House magazine that “all options are open” and said that the five independent MPs were “working together on issues that we have common ground on”.
Establishing a new formal grouping would also open new funding opportunities for the MPs, through holding joint fundraising events and collective use of resources.
However, the new grouping would not be eligible for ‘short money’ under current rules, which is money allocated to opposition parties to support research.
Whilst parties that secure at least two seats at a general election are eligible for ‘short money’, this does not apply to groups formed between General Elections.
Corbyn told the BBC: “I was elected by my constituents to speak out against the genocide in Gaza, against child poverty and against the demonisation of migrants and refugees.
“I am proud to work alongside my fellow independent colleagues to make sure our constituents’ voices are heard.”
Since their election to Parliament last month, the five independent MPs have penned joint letters to David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, urging him to suspend arms sales to Israel and to drop any legal challenge to the ICC application for an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benhamin Netanyahu.
They have also written jointly to the Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, over the recent rioting and to the seven Labour MPs that had the whip suspended for six months after voting in favour of an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
So far, however, it is understood that there has been no formal co-operation between independent MPs and the Labour MPs who had the whip withdrawn.
Adam also told The House that he was “not at all” working with the suspended Labour MPs.
The Financial Times reported that Mr Corbyn had met with the four pro-Palestinian independent MPs last month to discuss forming a loose coalition.
Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party in 2020 after claiming that the scale of anti-Semitism within the Party had been exaggerated for political reasons. He was later blocked by the NEC from standing as a Labour candidate at the subsequent General Election.
Corbyn was re-elected as an independent candidate in his constituency of Islington North, securing 49 per cent of the vote with a majority of 7,247.
Parliament returns from its summer recess on 2 September.
