After boundary changes in which Islington's three constituencies were combined into two a further internal party dispute occurred, as all three Islington MPs had moved from Labour to the SDP. Grant's Islington Central seat was abolished and he sought the nomination for the revised Islington North seat, being selected over sitting MP Michael O'Halloran. However O'Halloran left the SDP and, after a failed attempt to rejoin Labour, stood against Grant as an Independent Labour. This greatly divided Grant's potential vote and prevented him from offering himself as a viable tactical option to Conservative voters who wished to keep the left-wing Labour candidate, Jeremy Corbyn, out of Parliament. Grant finished third with 8,268 votes, 1,000 votes behind the Conservative candidate and 6,500 votes behind Corbyn.