Jeremy Corbyn to form alliance with four independent pro-Gaza MPs

Jeremy Corbyn is to form an official parliamentary alliance with four independent MPs who were elected on pro-Gaza platforms – issuing a call for more MPs to join.

The group will have the same number of MPs as Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist party, who each have five MPs, and more than the Green party and Plaid Cymru on four.

Promising to fight austerity and campaign on issues including the winter fuel allowance, the two-child benefit limit and arms sales to Israel, the group also explicitly invited MPs to join them, a reference to seven rebel Labour MPs suspended by the party for voting to axe the two-child benefit cap.

Corbyn, a former Labour leader, was elected as an independent MP for Islington North after being barred from standing as a Labour candidate at the last election. The group will also include the MPs Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain and Iqbal Mohamed.

The MPs said: “We were elected by our constituents to provide hope in a parliament of despair. Already, this government has scrapped the winter fuel allowance for around 10 million pensioners, voted to keep the two-child benefits cap, and ignored calls to end arms sales to Israel.

“Millions of people are crying out for a real alternative to austerity, inequality and war – and their voices deserve to be heard. As individuals we were voted by our constituents to represent their concerns in parliament on these matters, and more, and we believe that as a collective group we can carry on doing this with greater effect.

“The more MPs who are prepared to stand up for these principles, the better. Our door is always open to other MPs who believe in a more equal and peaceful world.”

The Independent Alliance will not be a political party but the grouping said it had formed so that the five MPs were allocated more parliamentary time to ask questions and speak in debates – operating in effect as a political party without a leader.

However, there is not yet a formal agreement in place to enable this to happen. A spokesperson for the Commons speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, said a letter had been received but declined to say whether that would have any bearing on parliamentary time allocated.

It is understood the new alliance do not expect to receive Short money, which is the funding opposition parties can receive for parliamentary work.

In a joint statement, the five MPs said they expected Hoyle would give them a similar number of speaking slots as other small parties such as Nigel Farage’s Reform, including being added to the rota for PMQs.

The five MPs had already begun working as a parliamentary group before the summer recess, including signing a number of joint letters to the government and issuing joint statements.

The MPs who were suspended are all close allies of the former Labour leader, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and other former members of his shadow cabinet including Richard Burgon and Rebecca Long-Bailey. Their suspensions are intended to run for six months.

After the vote, the five independent MPs wrote a joint letter to the suspended Labour MPs praising their decision and saying they “look forward to working with you closely as you represent your constituents more effectively than ever as independent members of parliament”.

The election of the five independent MPs from areas with high Muslim populations sent shock waves through Labour at the general election amid deep dissatisfaction over the party’s stance on the Gaza war.

They have since said they do not intend to only campaign on Gaza but on housing and poverty. The five MPs most recently wrote to the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, about the targeting of Muslim communities during the far-right riots in early August.

The Conservative leadership candidate Kemi Badenoch attacked the group at her campaign launch on Monday morning, saying: “When everyone was talking about the five new MPs from Reform, I was far, far more worried about the five new MPs elected on the back of sectarian Islamist politics, alien ideas that have no place here.”