Labour Party to discuss standing candidates in Northern Ireland, says Jeremy Corbyn

People in the Province have been allowed to join the Labour Party for a number of years, but they are not permitted to run as candidates in Assembly or local council elections.

However, in an interview with BBC News NI today, party leader Jeremy Corbyn acknowledged there was a “strong body of opinion” in Northern Ireland for change on this long-standing issue.

Speaking to the BBC at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool, Mr Corbyn said: “Up to now the party position has been the opposite of that. We will be discussing that.

“There is a democratic deficit in one sense. There is a question of a relationship with other parties in Northern Ireland as well and how that will be affected.

“Let us have that discussion over the next few months.

“There has been a long-standing debate. Let us hear all sides.”

During the interview with BBC News NI, Mr Corbyn was also asked about his past relationship with Sinn Féin, to which he responded: “I have always reached out to everybody.

“Of course, I know people in Sinn Féin. I always felt there had to be talks that included Sinn Féin to bring about the Good Friday Agreement.”

Mr Corbyn has faced strong criticism in the past for his dealings with pre-ceasefire republicans, including bringing members of the IRA to the House of Commons in 1984.

It has also been reported that Mr Corbyn stood in honour of an IRA gang who had been shot dead while trying to blow up a police station in Loughgall in 1987.

Mr Corbyn was re-elected as leader of the Labour Party leader at the weekend, comfortably defeating his challenger Owen Smith with 61.8% of the vote.