 Labour are continuing their campaign to regain power with only one policy being nasty to Jeremy Corbyn in public shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandi continued that trend in an interview with the Murdoch owned times radio this weekend. Can you envisage situation where maybe he then would stand as an independent in Islington North and do you think he'd lose he'd lose the Labour Party. You know I've got no idea absolutely no idea what he intends to do I know what he did the party would win what I mean we stand in seats with we stand to win and we fight them very hard and we would you know we would do that and I would. You know I would go knock on those doors for a candidate and and do what I could to support them but I would just say this to you as well is that Luciana Berger who I know you know well and this was a very good friend of mine. When it through our years in Parliament said when the HRC report was published this is no longer about Jeremy Corbyn he's tried to make it all about himself and this is about the Jewish community the hurt that has been caused to them and the trust that needs to be repaired and that's what I care about that's what I'm focused on and it was heartening to spend time at an event in Manchester with hundreds of members of the Jewish community just this week. And to hear how slowly and painstakingly we are starting to rebuild that level of trust and that's what I'm focused on not the individuals who've caused so much pain over recent years. Asha want your take on this can you imagine Lisa Nandi canvassing the residents of Islington North to boot out Jeremy Corbyn. Can I just say something about Lisa Nandi's comments about the hurt caused to the Jewish community and how seriously she's taking it. If she was taking anti Semitism and racism seriously she would not be on Tom Newton done show. She wouldn't be on there for even a second and the reason why is that man when he was political editor for the sun. He published an article which was this mad conspiracy theory map which had all these different little fat files and you could click on them and it supposedly exposed a hard left network surrounding Jeremy Corbyn. I was named in it many people you know you might have been named in there yourself I can't remember Michael and when you clicked on those fact files you can see who was cited to put this map together. And one of the sources was Aryan unity literally a neo Nazi organization was another one called the Millennium Report which is notoriously anti Semitic and it also seems that this map this mad conspiracy network map was actually lifted. From you know far right bits of the internet from something which was called the traitors map. So this is something which I think had the real risk of perhaps inciting violence inspiring what's called stochastic violence where you create an environment which makes political violence more likely and also was steeped in and drenched in far right conspiracy theory and anti Semitism. So if Lisa nandy cared at all about these issues which she supposedly taking so seriously she would go I refuse to be on a show being interviewed by this man on issues to do then Semitism racism because you know what the hypocrisy would be staggering. So I have a real problem with the way in which labor MPs supposed progressive supposed anti racist normalize this man who has never been held accountable for what was published under his name. So that's the first thing that I would like to say the second thing is about this question of you know Jeremy Corbyn and the way in which Kirstam is leadership and also members of the shadow cabinet have sought that to define their own political identity against Jeremy Corbyn. So one it's stupid absolutely nobody in the electorate is one over by simply a make is one over by making a negative case by going here is what I'm not we've seen that time and time again which is voters outside of very specific circumstances like perhaps with Trump they actually don't like that they're like can you just tell me what you're going to do rather than what you're not going to do. The second thing is that for all of the attacks leveled at Jeremy Corbyn and for all the ways in which his personal approval ratings suffered because of those attacks in 2017 40% of the electorate and in 2019 32% of the electorate still went out and voted for him. So when you go out and you say Jeremy Corbyn has caused so much pain he's essentially second only you know to to. Botulism in terms of you know poison and evil the thing that you're doing is you're essentially saying to that 40% and then that 32% and so are you you are associated with this person if you liked this man's policies if you liked what he stood for if you respected his integrity in his principle that means you're also trash right so you're kind of insulting a large portion of your potential voters. And then the third thing is you know whether or not Labour could win in Islington North if Jeremy Corbyn contested the seat. Obviously people tend to vote more so based on a party and who it is that they want to be Prime Minister polling has borne that out. However you do have these isolated cases where the appeal of a particular politician who they are what they stand for and their name recognition is able to upset that general political trend. Now that's exactly what happened with Ken Livingston who had to run as an independent for the London mayoralty and one and beat you know the Blair selected candidate Frank Dobson I believe it was. Ken Livingston was you know the victim of a procedural stitch up in order to try and keep him away from the London mayoralty and he won because he was offering something which Londoners liked and his name had a significant amount more recognition than Frank Dobson's. When it comes to Islington North what plays in Jeremy's favour should he decide to run as an independent candidate I also wouldn't blame the guy if he just fucking wanted a break from the daily smears and lies and you know hysteria of presenting him as you know the greatest evil this country has ever seen since coronation chicken. I couldn't claim if you wanted to break the things that run in his favor is that one regardless of whether or not you agree with him politically or you like what he stands for he is a famously dedicated. Constituency MP there are so many people in Islington North who have stories about you know when their council flat was in the state and Jeremy Corbyn said I'm going to make sure this gets sorted for you. Stuff to do with immigration status stuff to do with attempted deportations Jeremy has been you know really dedicated and committed to his constituents and then the second thing is name recognition Islington North is a safe labour seat sure but also when he was excluded. From the Labour Party there were these Vox pops being done and somebody said this is Jeremy Corbyn country and it's because what he was offering in terms of his economic vision his social vision the fact that he wanted. To achieve a more just economic settlement without throwing minorities under the bus it made him really popular. In Islington North so I would be wary of hubris in this case and I also think that to run against Jeremy Corbyn in Islington North in you know an aggressive hostile way and all that entails. I think that it would hold back the Starmer leadership and Labour's chances more generally it will just look really unattractive. The most sensible thing that the Starmer leadership can do is go OK this man is an MP he was elected as a Labour MP and he is a Labour Party member that means he's a fucking Labour MP and just get over it. Just take the L and move on but instead they're in this impossible position about once having no leg to stand on about why this man shouldn't be a Labour MP. So nowhere in the rule book absolutely nothing you know that that says that this man shouldn't be a Labour MP but so you know holding to essentially defying their own guidelines and their own laws and internal structures. But also saying we define ourselves against this man we draw all of our political identity from not being him. These are these are it's a contradictory position to be in and it's a stupid one it's a it's a rod they've made for their own back. So yeah Lisa what are you doing on Tom Newton done show like do you actually care about racism and anti-semitism at all or is it just a cheap political line. Well she cares about it when people in the Murdoch press have decided that someone is a racist they've decided Jeremy Corbyn is a racist shielding shielding into that if the the racist is actually within the Murdoch press she you know she wants to keep her hands clean she doesn't want to upset those people. Lisa Nandi of course doesn't just speak for herself she sits on Keir Starmer's front bench and so is subject to collective responsibility. Labour supporters have responded to her comments on Times Radio by therefore re-sharing some of the statements Starmer made during his leadership election about the then outgoing party leader. Well look the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn in that election we've just had were terrible and they came back at us on the door they vilified him and they knew what they were doing and they knew why they were doing it. That was Keir Starmer when he was courting the votes of Labour members he said the media vilified Corbyn and that they knew what they were doing and they knew why they were doing it. When Corbyn said the same thing of the release of the EHRC report he was suspended and now Keir Starmer has his shadow cabinet ministers saying they'll campaign on the doorstep of his LinkedIn North to boot the guy out of Parliament. There is more though this was part of Keir Starmer's acceptance speech. I want to pay tribute to Jeremy Corbyn who led our party through some really difficult times who energised our movement and who's a friend as well as a colleague. That video there where Keir Starmer calls Corbyn a friend shows that he isn't just a liar he's a snake. Ash it's plain to see how duplicitous Keir Starmer has shown himself to be will he get away with it. No I don't think he will and I think that the reason why this will go badly for him actually has very little to do with Jeremy Corbyn and how people feel about him as a former party leader. It's got much more to do with what it says about Keir Starmer because as you said saying one minute he's a friend and a colleague you know I pay tribute to him he's led our party through really difficult times he's been attacked he's been introduced he's been smith and then to turn around and go no way actually all of those attacks and smiths were completely correct I never even liked that bitch. You know everyone can see that for what it is which is naked opportunism. One of the things that the electorate really responds to is a politician who is who they are do you know what I mean they just are who they are. That's it Boris Johnson you know who he is he's someone who'll say anything to get elected he's made that clear he's kind of funny sometimes and he'll get Brexit done and he did all right. He's both slippery and lacks integrity but he's never promised to be anything else you know what you get with Jeremy Corbyn you know his strength was his weakness and vice versa which is. There was no changing who he was he couldn't really be you know super agile and responsive to the moment but that's also what made him an appealing conviction politician whereas. Keir Starmer's ended up with no policy no vision he says he's a man of conviction and integrity but also turn on someone who he said was his friend you know merely a year ago what you end up with it's absolutely nothing and I think that you know. You can see the desperation in the Starmer project at the moment which is despite the government having handled this pandemic in a completely catastrophic way in a way which has cost hundreds of thousands of lives in this country. Despite there being rampant runaway inequalities despite people being in meshed in a housing crisis despite there being climate change happening now extreme weather events and you know completely inadequate responses from this government. Keir Starmer has failed to make a dent in this government's polling and he only has one idea that's punch left and it's not working and the more it doesn't work the more he punch punches left because you've got. Mandelson and that whole gang of you know ancient Blair rights around him dripping poison into the year saying well if you just do this a little bit more it will definitely work. No it won't work what it will do is get the Labour Party in a shape which is more conducive to someone from the right of the party winning the leadership they'll do this by disempowering the membership by presiding over prescriptions and expulsions and that's what they hope. Will happen is that they'll end up with you know Blair 2.0 to rule over the ashes of the Labour Party and not win any elections right that's all they want and Keir Starmer is either I think to. Blinkered or perhaps to unstrategic as a politician to see that for what it is. I mean it's what do people know about Keir Starmer oven that he doesn't like Jeremy Corbyn I mean and even that his is his one selling point to the public I don't like Jeremy Corbyn falls apart because just two years ago he was saying he was a brilliant colleague and a friend. And he said all things have changed since now and then things have changed because he made a statement after the HRC report which changed everything. And I mean that just doesn't wash you know even the people who think that Jeremy Corbyn mishandled the anti Semitism crisis none of them think that his comments after the HRC report were worse than what came before. Yet for Keir Starmer that was the dividing line the dividing line was before he said oh actually the media did exaggerate the extent of the problem that was when he suddenly became persona non grata he suddenly became someone we should be actively campaigning against on the doorstep before that. He was a friend who he wanted to be Prime Minister doesn't make any sense. Because also what Jeremy Corbyn said after that HRC report wasn't anything new. It was what Jeremy Corbyn had been saying the entire time that Keir Starmer was in his shadow cabinet campaigning for him to become Prime Minister which was to say yes there is a problem but also it was exaggerated that wasn't new. No one heard that statement from Jeremy Corbyn so I didn't didn't realize he believed that no we knew he believed that right he said it consistently throughout the whole period. Now some people might say all that was a bit unstrategic maybe you should have used a different tone fine whatever the point is nothing changed between 2019 when Keir Starmer was trying to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister and 2021 when Keir Starmer is saying he's trash on the bottom of my shoe. And I wish he would have nothing to do with me I want to deselect him as an MP I want to stand someone else against him. It doesn't stack up you can't have your only selling point as I'm a man with integrity and I hate Jeremy Corbyn when just two years ago you said I'm a man of integrity and I think Jeremy Corbyn's the bee's knees. It doesn't stack up it doesn't make sense.