There’s been a lot of focus on splits on the right during the election campaign – but what about splits on the left? With less than two weeks to go until polling day, Mr S has been keeping tabs on those Corbynites who are deserting their former party for greener pastures. Quite literally, as many of them have jumped ship to the Green party – or are urging voters to consider non-Labour, independent candidates instead. So who are the lefties that have turned on Labour?
Owen Jones
Owen Jones, former Guardian columnist, led the exodus after announcing in March that he was abandoning Starmer’s Labour lot for ‘We Deserve Better’ – a group that backs ‘socialist candidates’ and has in some cases recommended voting against members of Starmer’s shadow cabinet. The Grauniad published a length column by Jones – who also posted a video online – in which he claimed Starmer’s party was committed to the ‘same ruinous politics which trashed this country’ and had become a ‘hostile environment’ for left-wingers. Now Jones can be found joining Jeremy Corbyn for campaign events in Islington North as the former Labour leader vies for re-election as an independent.
Jennie Formby
A Corbyn loyalist who served as the general secretary of the Labour Party between 2018 and 2020, Jennie Formby announced on Twitter last Sunday that she will now be backing the Greens at the election. ‘I’m voting Green,’ she told her followers, adding:
‘Not perfect, but much more transformative agenda. And people can’t just keep voting Labour “because we’ve got to get the Tories out”. They’re out anyway so we should for parties that genuinely represent what we believe in – which may well be Independents.’
Another one bites the dust…
Matt Zarb-Cousin
Jezza’s former spokesman, who also once worked as an adviser to Labour, Matt Zarb-Cousin has urged other party members to defect after claiming that lefties were ‘no longer welcome in the Labour party’. Zarb-Cousin told online news site HuffPost UK that there was a ‘factional war’ being waged by Starmer’s army against the left. Corbyn’s ex-spokesman has something of an anti-Starmer history too: he ran Rebecca Long-Bailey’s unsuccessful bid to succeed Corbyn as Labour leader against Sir Keir. Zarb-Cousin has now moved to the Greens, explaining that: ‘Democratic socialists are no longer welcome in the Labour Party and there is a strong case for them to join the Greens and push for proportional representation, which will give our views and politics more influence.’
Alex Nunns
Corbyn’s onetime speechwriter has been a strong supporter of his former boss’s campaign to run as an independent candidate. Alex Nunns has regularly endorsed Jezza’s campaign against Labour rival choice Praful Nargund and is currently pushing the ‘every door in Islington North challenge’ across social media, urging supporters to canvass for Corbyn. Talk about a loyal following…
George Aylett
George Aylett ran to be South West Wiltshire’s Labour candidate at only 19 years old in 2015, telling press at the time that he ‘didn’t care about politics three years ago’. Now the former Labour member is not only interested in current affairs, he has waded into the infighting taking over the left. A prominent character on social media, Aylett frequently tweets anti-Starmer posts – including one example where he has ‘cross-referenced the 10 pledges with Labour’s 2024 manifesto’, concluding: ‘Every pledge has been broken.’ Now Aylett, a self-confessed ‘leftie’ and ‘trade unionist’ urges left-wingers to ‘vote Green or independent socialists’.
James Foster
A former Labour cardholder, Foster has ditched his old party to promote Corbyn’s independent campaign on social media. Urging voters to back Jezza instead of the constituency’s Labour candidate, Foster has backed Green party boss Carla Denyer, retweeting articles on the eco-activist co-leader’s stance on trans rights, as well as expressing his support for Faiza Shaheen, the now-independent candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green who was dropped by the Labour party this month.
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