The lawmaker’s test positive for the highly contagious measles virus after six other members of the rank and file tested positive on the eve of what is expected to be one of the most tense and controversial Parliaments for a long time.
“It is an isolated incident and the National Health Service are working with the member concerned to confirm that this is all behind them and that they are likely to recover from the infection,” a spokesperson from Corbyn’s office told Sky News.
“The MP has been unwell, but is now feeling much better and has been well attended to by medical staff for several days,” the spokesperson added.
While neither the Labour Party nor its leadership have commented on the situation, there have been a series of other disclosures that underline Corbyn’s unrivalled authoritarian tendencies as far as the Labour Party membership is concerned.
Last week the rector of the Queen’s college in Oxford, the country’s largest and oldest modern university, resigned in protest after Corbyn refused to say if he supported free speech in universities as laid out in the Labour party’s manifesto, and senior Labour members attending events like the party’s annual conference in Brighton in September were confronted with flags bearing political slogans they could not ask to be taken down.
Shami Chakrabarti, a senior Labour lawyer who sat on the inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 at Liverpool Football Club, last week quit over Corbyn’s alleged failure to do enough to bring criminals to justice, saying he lacked the “moral authority” to be leader of the party.
The Labour Party was also hit with internal criticism of Corbyn last week after he reportedly told pregnant supporters during a question and answer session on Facebook Live that if she miscarried she would have to work longer hours and risk losing benefits such as maternity pay.
Saturday’s development comes at a sensitive time for the opposition leader’s number one enemy, the Conservative Party leader, Theresa May.
May is taking on the heavy responsibility of guiding Britain into the final stages of the Brexit negotiations after Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab’s resignation on Friday afternoon.
The British premier is also scheduled to launch her election manifesto next week, with the general election scheduled for June 8th.