Jeremy Corbyn’s newly formed political party could contest the 2028 London Mayoral election, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) can reveal.
The former Labour Party leader, who now heads up the recently created ‘Your Party’ (YP), said he will be in talks with the Green Party and various independent groups across the capital about the strategy for the election in 18 months time.
Zack Polanski’s party are the only major challenging entity not to have started their candidate selection process for May 2028. Reform UK have already selected theirs in Laila Cunningham, while it is understood that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will choose their nominee by early 2027.
Should the current Mayor of London decide not to stand again for a fourth term in office, the Labour Party race to succeed Lord Khan is expected to be wrapped up in the spring.
In an exclusive interview with the LDRS, Mr Corbyn indicated that progressive parties will be taking their time in the coming months to work out how best to approach the race for City Hall.
“We’ll be in discussion with the Greens, with the various independent groups around London – and earlier this year in the council elections, we worked very closely with independent groups supporting their candidates,” the Islington North MP told MyLondon’s new podcast, The London Brief.
“We worked with the independents in Enfield, in Redbridge, in Newham, in Tower Hamlets, as well as many outside London including in Kirklees, in Blackburn, Southport, and so on.
“And so I think we’ll be in discussion with them about how best to approach the Mayoral election.”
YP candidates only contested five wards across four boroughs in London at this year’s local elections. None were elected, with the Green Party hoovering up most of the progressive vote in the capital.
But Mr Corbyn said that YP has enjoyed steady growth in London, and will soon have branches in 20 boroughs.
“That’s two-thirds of London, and then we’ll move on from there,” he explained.
“We’ve got about 80 branches across the whole country so far, and we’ve worked very hard on that. The principle behind the branches is they’ve got to be locally open campaigning branches, local forums with the involvement of the community. They have to work with local groups and local communities.”
This includes already established independent groups such as the Redbridge Independents and Aspire in Tower Hamlets, the party of Mayor Luftur Rahman.
YP branches will work with such groups to develop “pan-London policies ahead of the 2028 Mayoral election”, Mr Corbyn confirmed.
Khalid Sadur, the YP branch officer for Enfield, said it was crucial to build up the party “from the ground” across London.
“We’re still a new party – it takes a lot of effort and time to build up the infrastructure,” he told the LDRS.
“We’re different because we want to build from the ground up. We want people to get involved – and not just with political meetings. We’re about integrating ourselves into the community.
“It’s engaging in campaigns. It’s engaging in local issues and we want people to be active. And when we talk about doing politics different, that’s what we mean.
“Given the momentum we’ve got now, and more branches to come, we’ve got a huge amount of members now in London.
“That’s going to fuel us in terms of driving towards 2028.
“I absolutely want a Your Party candidate [to be there] for people to be able to vote for in in 2028.”
In 2023, Mr Corbyn told an event at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that he would “have a think” about standing as an independent candidate for City Hall himself.
Islington North?
Despite being suspended from the Labour Party during the last parliament, Mr Corbyn stood in the constituency he has represented since 1983 as an independent candidate.
Usually marked down as a Labour stronghold, the battle for the North London seat became one of the most high profile races at the 2024 General Election.
“They spent a lot of money trying to defeat me,” he recalls.
It means Mr Corbyn still sits on the opposition benches alongside fellow YP MP Zarah Sultana, unencumbered by the Labour whip he defied for decades.
And he would not rule out running for another term in office, telling the LDRS: “I’m here with the people.”
