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Abstract

With less than a month to go until polling day, it is clear that the June 8 election is like no other.

Both Islington constituencies are Labour safe seats, but the fact that party leader Jeremy Corbyn is standing for re-election has seen a number of protest candidates emerge in Islington North.

The Brexit issue has also brought previously unseen dynamics to this election, with the Liberal Democrats and Greens confident they can take a share of the Labour vote by campaigning on a strong pro-EU stance.

How different it all was in 2015.

Mr Corbyn had been Islington North MP for more than three decades and appeared content to pursue his political activities from the backbenches.

Emily Thornberry, MP for Islington South and Finsbury, had six months earlier been sacked from her shadow attorney general role for posting a tweet of a house draped in England flags, which led to accusations of snobbishness.

Both were returned with increased majorities.

But Labour’s national defeat brought a leadership election which saw veteran outsider Mr Corbyn elected following a people-powered campaign which rocked the political establishment.

Two years on, his stewardship of the party has so enraged millionaire Labour donor Michael Foster that he is standing against Mr Corbyn. It follows a failed legal attempt to oust him as leader last year.

The episode ended in Mr Foster’s suspension from the party after he penned an article for the Tory-supporting Daily Mail in which he compared supporters of the Labour leader to Nazi stormtroopers.

Mr Foster wants to win the seat to oust Mr Corbyn as leader and, in his words, improve the plight of Islington residents.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party also has a candidate in Islington North, Knigel Knapp, and Mr Corbyn has another challenger in Susanne Cameron-Blackie, 68, a terminal cancer sufferer who wants to raise awareness about legal negligence claims which she says are cutting into vital NHS funds.

Bill Martin, of the Socialist Party (GB), and Andres Mendoza, of the Communist League, are also standing.

In Islington South, Ms Thornberry is quietly confident she will hold on to the seat. She has a majority of 12,708. Mr Corbyn defends an even larger majority of 21,194.

The Conservatives, meanwhile, are hoping to better their 2015 performance – when they came second in both constituencies – by benefiting from Theresa May’s high poll ratings.