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Even before Jeremy Corbyn was declared the winner of the seat he has held for more than 40 years, his supporters were in a boisterous mood.
As the votes for the Labour candidate Praful Nargund were about to be announced, “bad luck, mate” pierced the air of the sports centre in north London that was being used to count the votes.
It was clear the Corbyn backer wasn't genuinely offering his commiserations.
After laughter, came chants of “Free Palestine” as the former Labour leader began to speak.
His voice betrayed the emotion he felt at being returned to Parliament as an independent, after previously representing the area for Labour.
“I owe my life and my learning and my abilities entirely to the people of Islington North. This victory is dedicated entirely to them,” Mr Corbyn said.
He also said voters who backed his old party would be “looking for a government that on the world stage will search for peace and not war and not allow for terrible conditions that are happening in Gaza at the present time”.
His supporters’ glee at their hero turning the tables on a Labour Party that had first suspended him, in 2020, and then expelled him when he chose to run as an independent was palpable.
A chant of ‘oh, Jeremy Corbyn’ broke out as a keffiyeh was waved around in the air, a nod to his lifelong support for the Palestinian cause.
On a night in which Labour overturned the disastrous result of the 2019 general election, overseen by Mr Corbyn, and secured a historic majority, the former leader of the party secured his own turnaround.
He was suspended by Labour in 2020 after he refused to fully accept the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s findings that the party broke equality law when he was in charge and said anti-Semitism had been “dramatically overstated for political reasons”.
But there he was on stage giving a victory speech in the general election.
After finishing addressing the hall and as he talked to a scrum of reporters, Mr Corbyn was asked by The National what he hoped he could achieve on Gaza in the new parliament.
“The issue of a ceasefire in Gaza is absolutely central and quite obviously there are a lot of Labour MPs, and Greens and Liberal Democrats, and some Conservatives who recognise that we cannot go on observing the destruction and loss of life in Gaza,” he said.
“There has to be a ceasefire in Gaza and I’ll be on the demonstration on Saturday and I will be making that case and I will also, of course, be making that case in parliament when it resumes.”
Labour wins UK election - in pictures
Earlier, Labour’s press team were tight-lipped about the party’s chances in the seat, a sign that they were not optimistic about their chances. Soon after rumours began circulating that Mr Corbyn had won.
The sight of him looking at what appeared to be a victory speech beside the stage where the results were read out was the first hint that talk of a Corbyn victory was not merely speculation.
In the end, Mr Nargund was probably on a hiding to nothing trying to unseat his 75-year-old rival from a constituency he has held since 1983, more than half his adult life.
What pollsters YouGov had predicted could be “toss up” between Mr Corbyn and his rival in fact turned out to be anything but that as he romped home with a 7,247 majority.
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The bio
Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Dream City: San Francisco
Hometown: Dubai
City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
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360Vuz PROFILE
Date started: January 2017
Founder: Khaled Zaatarah
Based: Dubai and Los Angeles
Sector: Technology
Size: 21 employees
Funding: $7 million
Investors: Shorooq Partners, KBW Ventures, Vision Ventures, Hala Ventures, 500Startups, Plug and Play, Magnus Olsson, Samih Toukan, Jonathan Labin
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Guillermo Vilas - 659
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Price, base / as tested Dh174,500
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Rating: 4.5/5
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Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
UAE central contracts
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Rohan Mustafa, Ahmed Raza, Mohammed Usman, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Sultan Ahmed, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid
Part time contracts
Aryan Lakra, Ansh Tandon, Karthik Meiyappan, Rahul Bhatia, Alishan Sharafu, CP Rizwaan, Basil Hameed, Matiullah, Fahad Nawaz, Sanchit Sharma
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