In an opinion article for the Tribune following the NEC vote last week, Islington North MP JEREMY CORBYN says Labour leader Keir Starmer has decided to attack the democratic foundations of his own party and the principles he once proclaimed to support  

“The House should be debating the lack of democracy in so many areas of life.”

In 1983, I gave my maiden speech in Parliament. Margaret Thatcher had just been re-elected for her second term; in the space of four years, she had already launched an assault on trade unions, curbed the powers of local government, and laid the foundations for rampant privatisation.

The destructive legacy of Thatcherism is typically analysed through an economic lens, namely that free-market dogmatism rewarded corporate greed at the expense of our public services.

Less focus is paid to another kind of war she had to wage to win this economic battle; by curtailing the rights of trade unionists, disempowering local governments and handing over public resources to unaccountable private companies, Thatcher was waging a war on democracy.

40 years later, the Conservative government’s anti-democratic assault rages on. The Minimum Service Levels Bill overrides our fundamental right to strike.

The Public Order Bill curtails our right to protest. And new voter ID laws will effectively deny millions of people the ability to exercise their right to vote. Across the board, our democracy is under attack.

However, if the government’s recent theft of our democratic rights is cause for concern, so too is recent behaviour of the Labour leadership, which casts serious doubt over their willingness to win these rights back.

Last week, Labour’s National Executive Committee passed a motion – proposed by Keir Starmer – to bar me from standing as a Labour candidate in Islington North.

As I said in my statement, this was a flagrant denial of natural justice, and a shameful attack on the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members. It is up to them – not party leaders – to decide who their candidate should be.

At a time when the government is attacking our rights to strike, protest and vote, the Labour leadership should be defending democracy. Instead, it is debasing it.

Ultimately, only a democratic movement rooted in its local communities can generate the bold solutions needed to tackle the crises facing us all. It is no coincidence that the NEC’s anti-democratic motion took aim at our political campaign between 2015 and 2019.

When I became Leader, I was proud to be part of a movement that gave its members a voice, fought for a politics of redistribution and anti-imperialism, and mobilised a new generation of voters to believe that a better world was possible.

The decision to block my candidacy is an insult to the millions of people who voted for our Party in 2017 and 2019, and to all those who voted for his leadership on the basis that he would “defend [the] radical values” we put forward.

Keir Starmer has abandoned his pledges to defend trade unions, bring key industries into public ownership, reverse NHS privatisation, raise corporation tax, protect free movement and abolish tuition fees. Solidarity is now saved for CEOs, not striking workers. Trust is placed in corporate interests, not party members.

Human rights issues are cherry picked at the expense of a consistently ethical foreign policy. And empathy for desperate refugees is eschewed to appease the right-wing press.

As the government plunges millions into hardship, Keir Starmer has decided to attack the democratic foundations of his own party and the principles he once proclaimed to support.

However, just because the Labour leader has abandoned his faith in a better world doesn’t mean the rest of the labour movement should follow. There is huge demand for a more hopeful alternative: decent pay rises, democratic public ownership, housing for all, a wealth tax to save our NHS, and a humane immigration system grounded in dignity, empathy and care.

Those who continue to campaign for these transformative policies – and against the NEC’s assault on democracy – show great courage. Indeed, they have sent a message to all those who have been hesitant to fight back.

This week it was Islington North Labour Party under attack. Who’s next?

And, ultimately, if the Labour leadership is happy to denigrate its own party’s internal democracy, how will it treat democracy more broadly if it is given the chance to govern? One thing’s for sure: the Labour leadership will not be able to defend democracy in society if it cannot even respect it in its own movement.

“I shall be telling the House repeatedly that we do not intend to take these issues lying down. Justice has to be done for those who are worst off in areas such as the constituency that I represent.” 40 years ago, I concluded my maiden speech with a vow: to campaign for democracy, equality and peace on behalf of the people of Islington North. I have no intention of stopping now.