Who will Keir Starmer get to run for Labour in Islington North? The safe Labour seat has been held by Jeremy Corbyn since 1983, but Sir Keir says the former leader will not stand again.
A source tells us the party leadership “have been casting around for a candidate for a while”. Anyone who does stand will have to win over local members, many of whom still like Corbyn. There have been rumours that he could run as an independent, but his ally, Diane Abbott, has said this is unlikely.
Corbyn told us this morning he still wants to run for Labour. “Any attempt to block my candidacy — in a seat I have represented for 40 years — is an infringement of the democratic rights of Islington North Labour Party members.”
“I remain focused on tackling the most important issues facing my constituents, namely a cost-of-living crisis plunging more and more people into poverty and desperation” he added. “At a time when the Tories are waging their own assault on our democratic rights to strike and protest, we should be defending, not debasing, the importance of democracy in our movement.”
Local journalist Christian Wolmar has said he wants to contest the seat. Other Labour figures who want to become MPs include comedian Eddie Izzard and journalist Paul Mason.
Reluctant host Matt signing off
Matt Lucas has revealed that he had to have his arm twisted to take the ultimate “pandemic job”: eating cakes on television. Lucas was host of the Great British Bake Off for three years, and is now leaving. He had to be persuaded by his agent to do it, after declining at first. “I’d never seen the show before and I was not a baker,” Lucas said. He only saw it as a temporary thing, and will now go back to working with Little Britain co-star David Walliams and other things, while the show looks for his replacement. Many wish they’d had a similar pandemic gig.
Huw unveils a blue plaque
Newsreader Huw Edwards took some time away from the BBC to unveil a plaque in Newington Green this week. Edwards revealed the tribute to radical Welsh mathematician and thinker Richard Price, who helped shape the US constitution, on London’s oldest surviving terraced house. Price was from Llangeinor, not far from Edwards’s hometown of Bridgend in south Wales.
Mike Leigh gets back behind the camera
Some have been slower coming out of lockdown than others: director Mike Leigh (Abigail’s Party, Vera Drake) is looking forward to starting production on his latest film soon, after three years of pandemic delays. The project, shrouded in Leigh’s characteristic discretion, was planned for 2020. Details of plot and cast remain under wraps. Leigh’s last film was the epic Peterloo, about the Manchester massacre in 1819.
A fashionista in his element
By happy coincidence, Vogue editor Edward Enninful’s birthday crossed over with Milan Fashion Week this year. At a glamorous party over the weekend, Enninful and husband Alec Maxwell cut a large birthday cake decorated with photographs of the Vogue chief. Guests at the dinner included Maya Jama, Lady Emma Weymouth and actor Jodie Turner-Smith, who wrote online: “love to celebrate you”. Also having a big night out were Salma Hayek and Anna Wintour, editor of US Vogue.
