Where the sitting MP has a substantial geographic coverage in the new area, they will automatically be shortlisted.
Advertisement
Labour MPs had hoped the leader would take a tougher stance against deselecting MPs in the wake of his leadership win, during which he said he wanted to bring the party back together.
Mr Corbyn has said he wants to offer an olive branch to his critics after strengthening his mandate with a 62%-38% victory over challenger Owen Smith.
If replicated in a general election, the figures would hand Theresa May’s Conservatives a majority of around 100 and leave Labour shattered.
But even though grass-roots activists gave Corbyn a resounding stamp of approval, Labour’s troubles – including the lowest poll ratings in decades – are far from over as it struggles to convince more centrist voters it can win power. He said to supporters, “This party is strong”.
However, Mr Corbyn again backed the right of all local parties to pick a new MP. Many of them joined Labour at the last minute to vote for him, helping him to win the 2015 leadership contest with 59.5 percent of the vote. “The relationship between an MP and their constituency is a complex one”, Corbyn said. “Let’s have a democratic discussion, and I think the vast majority of members of Parliament will have no problems whatsoever”. They can then decide on it after a reshuffle, when Jeremy’s people could well have an extra seat on the NEC.
After all, in June there was a secret ballot by Corbyn’s very own Labour Party that turned in a 172-40 no confidence vote against him, and it was expected that he would resign from the party leadership.
The re-elected leader said he could deliver “real-time” online debates on policy.
While acknowledging there were “some differences of policy opinion”, he insisted there was “a good deal of unanimity” on issues like selective education and austerity.
And when interviewer Andrew Marr said he could read out a list of scathing comments made about the leader by some of his MPs, he joked: “You have only got half an hour on the programme”.
Corbyn, a long-time back-bench lawmaker, was elected previous year to lead Labour, which governed between 1997 and 2010 but has lost two successive general elections to the Conservatives.
He said: “We agreed to put the rule changes on Scotland and Wales to the conference, so we can get a resolution on that, and thankfully Jeremy has started talking to colleagues to try and get an outcome for how we fill our front bench so very positive, a short meeting and everyone was left happy”.
It followed Mr Corbyn suggesting that spies who defend the country from terrorist attacks should get no more money and his support for more Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans being pursued in the courts over alleged abuses. “With this huge membership, that has to be reflected much more in decision-making in the party”.
“His job and his duty now is to unite the Labour Party and I believe he can do that, but he has to want to do that, and I’m going to work with him to that end – equally, Labour MPs have to do likewise”.
Advertisement
Former shadow cabinet minister Vernon Coaker warned: “The political terms of trade in this country are changing”.
