{UAH} The Jeremy Corbyn Story: Profile of Labour's new leader

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The Jeremy Corbyn Story: Profile of Labour's new leader
By Brian Wheeler
Political reporter

12 September 2015From the section UK Politics Image copyright Getty Images
Jeremy Corbyn's election as Labour leader, at the age of 66, must
count as one of the biggest upsets in British political history.

To his critics, he is almost a caricature of the archetypal "bearded
leftie", an unelectable throwback to the dark days of the 1980s, when
Labour valued ideological purity more than winning power.

But to his army of supporters he is the only honest man left in
politics, someone who can inspire a new generation of activists, and
make them believe that there is an alternative to the neo-liberal
Thatcherite consensus that has let them down so badly.

A fixture on the British left for more than 40 years, he has been an
ever present figure at demos and marches, a joiner of committees, a
champion of controversial causes, a tireless pamphleteer, handy with a
megaphone.

But not even his most ardent admirers would have had him down as a
future leader of Her Majesty's opposition. And not just because he
believes in the abolition of the Monarchy.

Corbyn's brand of left wing politics was meant to have been consigned
to the dustbin of history by New Labour.

He belongs to a dwindling band of MPs, which also includes Diane
Abbott and John McDonnell, who held fast to their socialist principles
as their party marched steadily to the right under Tony Blair and
Gordon Brown.

'My turn'
At the start of the leadership contest, after scraping on to the
ballot paper at the last minute, thanks to charity nominations from
Labour MPs who wanted a token left wing candidate to "broaden the
debate", he explained to The Guardian why he had decided to run.

"Well, Diane and John have done it before, so it was my turn."

Asked if he had taken some persuading, he replied: "Yeah. I have never
held any appointed office, so in that sense it's unusual, but if I can
promote some causes and debate by doing this, then good. That's why
I'm doing it."

He added: "At my age I'm not likely to be a long-term contender, am I?"

That view was quickly revised as Corbynmania took hold. Something
about the Islington North MP struck a chord with Labour leadership
voters in a way that his three younger, more polished, more careerist,
rivals patently did not.

Despite, or perhaps because, of his unassuming, low-key style, he
seemed able to inspire people who had lost faith in Labour during the
Blair/Brown years and bring hope to young activists fired-up by his
anti-austerity message.

His perceived integrity and lifelong commitment to the socialist cause
made him an attractive option to many left wing voters jaded by the
spin and hollow sound bites of the Westminster political classes.

He always insists he doesn't do personality politics and has never
tried to cultivate a following among MPs. Which makes him something of
a one-off as a party leader.

Legendary frugality
Rather than amusing anecdotes about youthful indiscretions, or tales
of climbing Westminster's greasy pole, there is a list of the causes
he has championed and committees he has served on.

He recently confessed he had never smoked cannabis - practically
unheard of in the left wing circles he grew up in, but the mark of a
man who is known for his austere, almost ascetic, approach to life.

His frugality is legendary. He usually has the lowest expenses claims of any MP.

"Well, I don't spend a lot of money, I lead a very normal life, I ride
a bicycle and I don't have a car," he told The Guardian earlier this
year.

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn had an impeccable middle class upbringing.

He spent his early years in the picturesque Wiltshire village of
Kington St Michael. When he was seven, the family moved to a
seven-bedroomed manor house in the hamlet of Pave Lane, in Shropshire.

The youngest of four boys, he enjoyed an idyllic childhood in what he
himself has called a rural "Tory shire".


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Personal life: Lives with third wife. Has three sons from earlier marriage.

Food and drink: A vegetarian who does not drink alcohol. According to
The Guardian, his favourite restaurant is Gaby's diner in London's
West End, where he likes to eat hummus after taking part in
demonstrations in Trafalgar Square.

Hobbies: Running, cycling, cricket and Arsenal football club.
According to the Financial Times: "He loves making jam with fruit
grown on his allotment, belongs to the All Party Parliamentary Group
for Cheese and is a borderline trainspotter." He does not own a car.

Culture: A lover of the works of Irish poet WB Yeats. His favourite
novelist is said to be the late Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, whose
most famous work, Things Fall Apart, is about the tensions between
colonialism and traditional societies. He is a fluent Spanish speaker
and enjoys Latin American literature. His favourite films are said to
be The Great Gatsby and Casablanca.


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His brother Piers, now a meteorologist known for denying climate
change is a product of human activity, has described the Corbyn boys
as "country bumpkins".

Corbyn disagrees with his brother on climate change but they remain
close. They both learned their politics at the family dinner table,
where left wing causes and social justice were a frequent topic of
debate.

Their maths teacher mother Naomi and electrical engineer father David
were peace campaigners who met at a London rally for supporters of
Spain's Republicans in the fight against Franco's fascists.

Piers, who would go on to be a well known squatters leader in 1960s
London, was even further to the left than Jeremy.

Both boys joined the local Wrekin Labour Party and the Young
Socialists while still at school.

Corbyn had begun his education at the fee-paying preparatory school,
Castle House, in Newport, before moving into the state sector, after
passing his 11-plus.

He was one of only two Labour-supporting boys at Adams Grammar School,
in Newport, when his class held a mock election in 1964.

In an interview with The Sun, his friend Bob Mallett recalls Corbyn
being jeered by his right-wing schoolmates: "Jeremy was the Labour
candidate and I his campaign manager because at a middle-class
boarding grammar school in leafy Shropshire, there weren't many
socialists. We were trounced."

Corbyn left Adams with two A levels, both at grade E, and an enduring
hatred of selective education.


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Corbyn in quotes
"It was an illegal war and therefore [Tony Blair] has to explain to
that. Is he going to be tried for it? I don't know. Could he be tried
for it? Possibly," on the Iraq war.

"Are super-rich people actually happy with being super-rich? I would
want the super rich to pay properly their share of the needs of the
rest of the community," on Channel 4 News.

"He was a fascinating figure who observed a great deal and from whom
we can learn a great deal," on Karl Marx to the BBC's Andrew Marr.

"Without exception, the majority electricity, gas, water and railway
infrastructures of Britain were built through public investment since
the end of WWII and were all privatised at knock-down prices for the
benefit of greedy asset-strippers by the Thatcher and Major-led Tory
governments," in his column for the Morning Star newspaper.

"Some people say to me, are we still worried about Hiroshima. My reply
is that the weapons were used specifically against civilians and while
'fireworks' compared to what is now available, killed and have killed
for the past 59 years. Nuclear weapons have saved no lives, killed
thousands and maimed many more and impoverished the poor nations who
have them," on his website.

"I started wearing a beard when I was 19 and living in Jamaica; they
called me 'Mr Beardman,'" on winning the Beard Liberation Front's
Beard of the Year award in 2002.


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He reportedly split up with his second wife Claudia after she insisted
on sending their son Ben - now a football coach with Premier League
Watford - to Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, in Barnet, instead of an
Islington comprehensive.

After leaving school, Corbyn spent two years in Jamaica, with
Voluntary Service Overseas, something he has described as an "amazing"
experience.

Back in the UK he threw himself into trade union activism, initially
with now long defunct National Union of Tailors and Garment Makers.

The late Tony Benn was a key influence on Corbyn's politics
He started a course in Trade Union Studies at North London Polytechnic
but left after a series of arguments with his tutors over the
curriculum.

"He probably knew more than them," Piers told The Sun.

A successful career as a trade union organiser followed, with the
Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union (AEEU) and then the
National Union of Public Employees (NUPE).

But his real passion was for Labour Party politics - and in 1974 he
was elected to Haringey District Council, in North London.

In the same year he married fellow Labour councillor, Jane Chapman, a
university lecturer.

Chapman says she married Corbyn for his "honesty" and "principles" but
she soon grew weary of his intense focus on politics.

"Politics became our life. He was out most evenings because when we
weren't at meetings he would go to the Labour headquarters, and do
photocopying - in those days you couldn't print because there were no
computers,' she told The Mail on Sunday.


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What others say
"Jeremy is a saintly figure of enormous personal integrity. He is a
man who lives his life according to his beliefs," former Labour MP
Chris Mullin, speaking to Panorama.

"If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won't be a defeat like 1983 or
2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation",
former Labour leader and prime minister Tony Blair.

"The showbiz glitz of New Labour temporarily hid the hole where the
heart of Labour was supposed to be. Now the 'Corbynites' (whoever
expected to use that phrase?) are trying to hide that hole behind some
old banners and a bloke with a beard," left-wing commentator Mick
Hume.

"There is something inherently virtuous about him, and that is a
quality that can rally the support of a lot of people, and most
importantly, a lot of young people," singer and activist Charlotte
Church (pictured).

"While most of his chums have all moderated their views, dumped their
corduroy jackets and grey suits, shaved their beards and quietly
cancelled their CND subscriptions, [he] has hardly changed a bit; he
is the Fidel Castro of London N1," Telegraph journalist Robert
Hardman.


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They shared a love of animals, they had a tabby cat called Harold
Wilson, and enjoyed camping holidays together in Europe on Corbyn's
motorbike.

But fun was in short supply at home, recalls Chapman, who remains in
touch with Corbyn and backed his leadership bid.

During their five years together he never once took her dinner, she
told The Mail, preferring instead to "grab a can of beans and eat it
straight from the can" to save time.

In 1987, Corbyn married Claudia Bracchita, a Chilean exile, with whom
he had three sons. The youngest, Tommy, was born while Corbyn was
lecturing NUPE members elsewhere in the same hospital.
Twenty-five-year-old Seb has been helping out on his father's
campaign.

Corbyn is a long standing supporter of Irish Republicanism
The couple separated in 1999, but remained on good terms.

Corbyn got married for a third time last year, to his long term
partner Laura Alvarez, a 46-year-old Mexican fair trade coffee
importer.

In the bitter internal warfare that split Labour in the late 1970s and
early eighties, Corbyn was firmly on the side of the quasi-Marxist
hard left.

A Labour man to his fingertips - he was no Militant "entryist" trying
to infiltrate the party by stealth - he nevertheless found common
cause with former Trotskyists such as Ted Knight, and joined them in
their battle to push the party to the left.

He became a disciple of Tony Benn, sharing his mentor's brand of
democractic socialism, with its belief in worker controlled industries
and state planning of the economy, as well as Benn's commitment to
unilateral nuclear disarmament and a united Ireland.


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.

Nuclear disarmament: Joined CND as a schoolboy in 1966

Irish Republicanism: Organised Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams' visit to
the Commons in 1983. Once employed Irish Republican dissident Ronan
Bennett as a member of staff at Westminster

Miners' strike: Invited striking miners into Commons gallery in 1985
who were expelled for shouting Coal not Dole'

Anti-Apartheid: serving on the National Executive of the
Anti-Apartheid Movement, and was arrested in 1984 for protesting
outside South Africa House.

Palestinian solidarity: A member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
and campaigns regularly against the conflict in Gaza

Miscarriages of justice: Worked on on behalf of the Guildford Four and
Birmingham Six, who were eventually found to be have been wrongly
convicted of IRA bombings in England in the mid-1970s

Animal rights: Joined the League Against Cruel Sports at school,
became a vegetarian at 20, after working on a pig farm

Iraq war: Chaired the Stop the War coalition

Gay rights: Spoke out in 1983 on a "No socialism without gay
liberation" platform and continued to campaign for Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgender rights


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Corbyn was never seen as a great orator like Benn, or a firebrand like
miners' leader Arthur Scargill, but he worked tirelessly behind the
scenes, his trousers stained with purple ink from the copying machines
that produced the pamphlets and newspapers that were the lifeblood of
the British Left in the pre-internet era.

He ran the London Labour Briefing newspaper, which helped propel Ken
Livingstone to power on the Greater London Council.

He was elected to Parliament in 1983, to represent his home patch of
Islington North, a seat he has held ever since and where he has
increased his majority from 5,600 to 21,000, and is by most accounts a
popular and hard-working MP.

The Bennite faction that Corbyn belonged to was already in retreat,
following their leader's failure to capture the deputy leadership of
the party in 1981.

'Modernisation'
After fighting and losing the 1983 election on arguably the most
left-wing manifesto it had ever put before the British public, with
its commitment to renationalising the utilities just privatised by the
Thatcher government, pulling out of the EU, nuclear disarmament and
the creation of a "national investment bank" to create jobs, Labour
began the painful process of "modernisation" that led to the birth of
New Labour.

And Corbyn would spend the next 32 years on the backbenches fighting a
rearguard action against his party's abandonment of the radical
policies and values contained in the '83 manifesto in the name of
electability, under Neil Kinnock, John Smith and, most notably, Tony
Blair.

Corbyn has suggested Tony Blair should face a war crimes trial
Corbyn might have hailed from the same North London district as Blair
and entered Parliament in the same year but that is where the
similarity ended.

He abhorred Blair's embrace of free market economics and did his best
to be a thorn in the younger man's side throughout his time in Downing
Street, although Blair's large majorities ensured the damage was
barely noticeable.

He would always vote with his conscience, rather than be dictated to
by the party whips.

It earned him the accolade of being Labour's most rebellious MP,
defying the party managers more than 500 times.

It also meant he and his allies became increasingly isolated, with
their views and interventions ignored by the mainstream media and most
of their colleagues on the Labour benches.

Blair's dire warnings that Labour would face "annihilation" if it
elected Corbyn during the leadership contest were met by Corbyn with a
suggestion that the man he can now call his predecessor as Labour
leader should probably face trial for war crimes over his role in the
Iraq war.

Corbyn has been a stalwart of the British left for more than 40 years

Campaigning for a united Ireland in 1984
Corbyn and his comrades - unlike their modernising colleagues they
would use the term without irony - routinely attached themselves to
any cause that felt like it would strike a blow against British and
American "imperialism" or the Israeli state.

Internationalist in outlook, they would proclaim solidarity with
socialist campaigns and governments in places like Cuba, Chile,
Nicaragua, El Salvador and attack US policies that, in Corbyn's view,
enslaved the Latin American world.

He incurred the wrath of the Labour leadership early on his career
when he invited two former IRA prisoners to speak at Westminster, two
weeks after the Brighton bomb that had nearly killed Margaret Thatcher
and her cabinet.

Later on it would be his willingness to share platforms with
representatives of Hamas and Hezbollah that would put him at the
centre of controversy. When challenged, he insists he does not share
their views but that peace will never be achieved without talking to
all sides.

Rock star status
He may have been largely sidelined in the House of Commons, respected
but too much of a known quantity to have an impact, but Corbyn's
stature and profile outside Parliament continued to grow.

He chaired the Stop the War Coalition and became a leading figure in
the anti-austerity movement, which began to attract large crowds of
young activists eager for something to believe in and to take the
fight to the David Cameron.


Corbyn has won Beard of the Year no less than four times
Still, no one gave Corbyn a prayer when he entered the contest to
succeed Ed Miliband as Labour leader, with bookmakers offering a price
of 200-1.

His elevation to rock star status, among the crowds who flocked to his
leadership campaign meetings, must have been as much of a shock to
Corbyn as it was to his opponents, but he never showed it.

He carried on, just as he always had, railing against inequality,
talking about hope, promising to renationalise industries, tax the
rich and scrap Trident, and wearing the same white, open-necked shirt
with pens sticking out of the top pocket.

Only now people were listening.

Corbyn is understood to have rejected pleas from some supporters for
him to stand aside, having made his point and injected new life into
Labour's left, to leave the field clear for a younger candidate who
might have more electoral appeal. He appears determined to make a go
of the leadership.

It is impossible to predict what will happen next. Labour has never
had a leader like Jeremy Corbyn before.

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