An Islington North CLP Zoom call for Black History Month last night saw Jeremy Corbyn go further than his public statement – in which he celebrated having “been reinstated in the Labour Party” – and claim “once again, Islington North has a Labour MP”, jumping the gun on any decision by Keir Starmer over whether he should have the whip returned. As we saw this morning, Corbyn loyalists – and now seemingly Corbyn himself – believe his re-admission as a Labour MP was automatic upon the NEC lifting his membership suspension…

Guido can also reveal footage of Corbyn doubling down on his 2019 manifesto pledge to reform the Equality and Human Rights Commission, telling constituency members it should be “held to account” by “independent human rights organisation”, less than a month after their investigation into Labour Party antisemitism was published.

The private Zoom call – during which Corbyn described his suspension as a “very strange time for me” – saw Islington North Labour perform an awkward virtual round-of-applause on Zoom – which Dawn Butler also took part in. Corbyn, his CLP and his former minions think he’s back in. Starmer however has just tweeted “I have taken the decision not to restore the whip to Jeremy Corbyn. I will keep this situation under review.”