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Corbyn elected as independent, former PM Truss loses her seat
Corbyn, 75, who has represented the London constituency of Islington North for more than 40 years, won the seat comfortably -- but for the first time without Labour affiliation.
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Britain's opposition Labour party Leader Jeremy Corbyn (left) waves as he stands with members of his shadow cabinet after Britain's opposition Labour party's Deputy Leader Tom Watson (right) delivered a speech on the third day of the Labour Party conference in Brighton, southern England, on Sept. 26, 2017. (Agence France-Presse/Ben Stansall)
F
ormer UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left-winger suspended by the party following a drawn-out anti-Semitism scandal, won re-election to parliament on Friday as an independent candidate.
Corbyn, 75, who has represented the London constituency of Islington North for more than 40 years, won the seat comfortably -- but for the first time without Labour affiliation.
He led the main opposition Labour party -- which is on course to return to power following Thursday's vote -- into the last election in 2019 but stepped down as leader after overseeing its worst results in decades.
He had been sitting as an independent MP since 2020, and announced at the outset of the election campaign that he would contest the constituency to be "an independent voice for equality, democracy and peace".
Hailing his win in the early hours of Friday, Corbyn said it was a "resounding message" that his constituents "want something different".
Labour suspended him in 2020 after he refused to fully accept the findings of a rights watchdog's probe into claims that anti-Semitism became rampant within Labour's ranks under his leadership.
Meanwhile, former British prime minister Liz Truss, who became the country's shortest-serving leader ever when she sparked a bond market meltdown and a collapse in sterling, lost her parliamentary seat in the election.
Truss secured 11,217 votes in her South West Norfolk constituency in eastern England, behind 11,847 votes for Labour candidate Terry Jermy.
Taking over from the scandal-ridden premiership of Boris Johnson, Truss, 48, was forced to announce her resignation after just 44 days when her unfunded tax cuts sparked financial market turmoil, raising the cost of mortgages for homeowners already in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.
Lampooned in the media - one tabloid newspaper asked in the dying days of her premiership whether she would last longer than a supermarket lettuce - Truss had become synonymous for many voters with the chaos and failures of Conservative government.
She has, however, remained an influential voice among right-wing lawmakers in the party.
