106 Facts About Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament for Islington North since 1983.

Now an independent, Corbyn had been a member of the Labour Party from 1965 until his expulsion in 2024, and remains a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus.

Jeremy Corbyn served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020.

Jeremy Corbyn identifies ideologically as a socialist on the political left.

Jeremy Corbyn's activism has included Anti-Fascist Action, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and advocating for a united Ireland and Palestinian statehood.

Jeremy Corbyn condemned antisemitism and apologised for its presence, while his leadership saw a strengthening of disciplinary procedures regarding hate speech and racism.

In 2019, after deadlock in Parliament over Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn endorsed holding a referendum on the withdrawal agreement, with a personal stance of neutrality.

Jeremy Corbyn remained Labour leader for four months while the leadership election to replace him took place.

In May 2024, after the 2024 general election had been called, Jeremy Corbyn was not allowed to stand as a Labour candidate for his constituency, and subsequently announced he would stand as an independent candidate for Islington North; he was then expelled from Labour.

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn was born on 26 May 1949 in Chippenham, Wiltshire, the son of mathematics teacher Naomi Loveday and electrical engineer and power rectifier expert David Benjamin Corbyn.

Jeremy Corbyn's parents were Labour Party members and peace campaigners who met in the 1930s at a committee meeting in support of the Spanish Republic at Conway Hall during the Spanish Civil War.

When Jeremy Corbyn was seven, the family moved to Pave Lane, Shropshire, where his father bought Yew Tree Manor, a 17th-century farmhouse which was once part of the Duke of Sutherland's Lilleshall estate.

Jeremy Corbyn joined the Labour Party at the age of 16.

Jeremy Corbyn achieved two A-Levels at grade E, the lowest possible passing grade, before leaving school at 18.

Jeremy Corbyn joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1966 while at school and later became one of its three vice-chairs and subsequently vice-president.

Jeremy Corbyn subsequently visited Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay throughout 1969 and 1970.

Jeremy Corbyn began a course in trade union studies at North London Polytechnic but left after a year without a degree.

Jeremy Corbyn was appointed a member of a district health authority and in early 1974, at the age of 24, he was elected to Haringey Council from South Hornsey ward.

Jeremy Corbyn spoke in another debate, describing a motion calling for greater support for law and order as "more appropriate to the National Front than to the Labour Party".

Jeremy Corbyn became the local Labour Party's agent and organiser, and had responsibility for the 1979 general election campaign in Hornsey.

Michael Crick, in the 2016 edition of his book Militant, says that Jeremy Corbyn was "a member of the editorial board", as does Lansley, Goss and Wolmar's 1989 work The Rise and Fall of the Municipal Left.

Jeremy Corbyn worked on Tony Benn's unsuccessful deputy leadership campaign in 1981.

Jeremy Corbyn was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the constituency of Islington North, in February 1982, winning the final ballot for selection by 39 votes against 35 for GLC councillor Paul Boateng, who in 1987 became one of the first three Black British Members of Parliament.

In 1983, Jeremy Corbyn spoke on a "no socialism without gay liberation" platform and continued to campaign for LGBT rights.

Jeremy Corbyn was a campaigner against apartheid in South Africa, serving on the National Executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and was arrested in 1984 while demonstrating outside South Africa House, leading, decades later, to a viral image of Corbyn being arrested circulated by supporters on social media.

In 1990, Jeremy Corbyn opposed the poll tax and nearly went to jail for not paying the tax.

Jeremy Corbyn appeared in court the following year as a result.

Jeremy Corbyn supported the campaign to overturn the convictions of Jawad Botmeh and Samar Alami for the 1994 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in London which argued that there was insufficient evidence to tie them to the act, along with Amnesty International, Unison and a number of journalists and other MPs.

Jeremy Corbyn sat on the Social Security Select Committee from 1992 to 1997.

Jeremy Corbyn consistently stated that he maintained links with Sinn Fein in order to work for a resolution to the armed conflict.

Jeremy Corbyn met Adams at the 1983 and 1989 Labour conferences and in 1983 at Westminster, along with a number of other Labour MPs.

Jeremy Corbyn was criticised by the Labour Party leadership for the meeting, which took place two weeks after the IRA's bombing of the Conservative Party leadership that killed five people.

In 1986, Jeremy Corbyn was arrested with 15 demonstrators protesting against what they saw as weak evidence and poor treatment during the trial of a group of IRA members including Patrick Magee, who was convicted of the Brighton hotel bombing and other attacks.

In 1987, Jeremy Corbyn attended a commemoration by the Wolfe Tone Society in London for eight IRA members who were killed by Special Air Service soldiers while attacking a Royal Ulster Constabulary police station in Loughgall, County Armagh.

Jeremy Corbyn subsequently said that he had attended the event, which included a minute of silence for the eight IRA members, to "call for a peace and dialogue process".

In 1994, Jeremy Corbyn signed a Commons motion condemning the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, which killed 21 people.

In 2017, Jeremy Corbyn said that he had "never met the IRA", although Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott later clarified that although he had met members of the IRA, "he met with them in their capacity as activists in Sinn Fein".

Between 1997 and 2010, during the New Labour governments, Jeremy Corbyn was the Labour MP who voted most often against the party whip, including three-line whip votes.

Jeremy Corbyn has called for Tony Blair to be investigated for alleged war crimes during the Iraq War.

Jeremy Corbyn sat on the London Regional Select Committee from 2009 to 2010.

In October 2001, Jeremy Corbyn was elected to the steering committee of the Stop the War Coalition, which was formed to oppose the War in Afghanistan which started later that year.

Jeremy Corbyn cited "the deployment of troops to Afghanistan and the threat of bombing Iraq" as examples.

Jeremy Corbyn was vehemently opposed to Britain's involvement in the Iraq War in 2003, and spoke at dozens of anti-war rallies in Britain and overseas.

In 2006, Jeremy Corbyn was one of 12 Labour MPs to support Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for a parliamentary inquiry into the Iraq War.

Jeremy Corbyn was elected chair of the coalition in succession to Andrew Murray in September 2011, but resigned once he became Leader of the Labour Party in September 2015.

Jeremy Corbyn is a member of a number of Parliamentary Trade Union Groups: he is sponsored by several trade unions, including UNISON, Unite and the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.

Jeremy Corbyn is a supporter of the Unite Against Fascism pressure group.

Jeremy Corbyn was chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Chagos Islands, chair of the APPG on Mexico, Vice-Chair of the APPG on Latin America and vice-chair of the APPG on Human Rights.

Jeremy Corbyn has advocated for the rights of the forcibly removed Chagossians to return to the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Jeremy Corbyn appeared on a call-in show on Press TV, an Iranian government television channel, several times between 2009 and 2012.

Jeremy Corbyn was criticised for appearing on the channel in light of Iran executing and imprisoning homosexuals, as well as Corbyn not questioning contributors who called the BBC "Zionist liars" and described Israel as a "disease".

Jeremy Corbyn said in response that he used the programme to address "human rights issues" and that his appearance fee was "not an enormous amount" and was used to help meet constituency office costs.

Jeremy Corbyn was one of 16 signatories to an open letter to Ed Miliband in January 2015 calling for Labour to make a commitment to opposing further austerity, to take rail franchises back into public ownership, and to strengthen collective bargaining arrangements.

Jeremy Corbyn sat on the Justice Select Committee from 2010 to 2015.

Jeremy Corbyn decided to stand as a candidate, having been disillusioned by the lack of a left-wing voice, and said to his local newspaper, The Islington Tribune, that he would have a "clear anti-austerity platform".

Jeremy Corbyn said he would vote to scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system and would "seek to withdraw from Nato".

Jeremy Corbyn suggested that Britain should establish a national investment bank to boost house-building and improve economic growth and lift wages in areas that had less investment in infrastructure.

Jeremy Corbyn indicated that, if he were elected, policies that he put forward would need to be approved by party members before being adopted and that he wanted to "implement the democratic will of our party".

Several who nominated Jeremy Corbyn later said they had ensured he had enough votes to stand, more to widen the political debate within the party than because of a desire or expectation that he would win.

At the Second Reading of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill in July 2015, Jeremy Corbyn joined 47 Labour MPs to oppose the Bill, describing it as "rotten and indefensible", whilst the other three leadership candidates abstained under direction from interim leader Harriet Harman.

Jeremy Corbyn rapidly became the frontrunner among the candidates and was perceived to benefit from a large influx of new members.

Jeremy Corbyn was initially viewed as a token candidate for the left wing of the party and not expected to win.

Many of Jeremy Corbyn's supporters felt he possessed personal qualities such as earnestness and modesty leading them to develop a sense of emotional attachment to him as individual.

Sung in the style of a football chant to the tune of a riff from "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes, it attracted special attention at the Glastonbury Festival 2017, where Jeremy Corbyn appeared and spoke to the crowds.

Jeremy Corbyn delivered his first Labour Party Conference address as leader on 29 September 2015.

In September 2015 an unnamed senior serving general in the British Army stated that a mutiny by the Army could occur if a future Jeremy Corbyn government moved to scrap Trident, pull out of Nato or reduce the size of the armed forces.

Jeremy Corbyn said that Labour was ready to fight an election against Johnson.

Tony Blair argued that the party's unclear position on Brexit and the economic policy pursued by the Jeremy Corbyn leadership were to blame.

Jeremy Corbyn insisted that he had "pride in the manifesto" that Labour put forward and blamed the defeat on Brexit.

Jeremy Corbyn remained Labour leader for four months while the leadership election to replace him took place.

Jeremy Corbyn defended his comments in a TV interview later that day; shortly after it aired, the Labour Party announced that it had suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending an investigation.

Jeremy Corbyn's suspension was welcomed by Labour figures including Margaret Hodge, and Harriet Harman, as well as by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

On 13 December 2020, Jeremy Corbyn announced the Project for Peace and Justice.

Jeremy Corbyn launched the project on 17 January 2021, and its affiliates include Christine Blower, Len McCluskey and Zarah Sultana.

Jeremy Corbyn was endorsed by Mick Lynch of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.

Jeremy Corbyn was comfortably re-elected as an independent, even as Labour won a landslide victory in the general election.

Jeremy Corbyn has been referred to as a "mainstream [Scandinavian] social democrat".

Jeremy Corbyn advocates reversing austerity cuts to public services and some welfare funding made since 2010, as well as renationalisation of public utilities and the railways.

Writer Ronan Bennett, who formerly worked as a research assistant to Jeremy Corbyn, has described him as "a kind of vegan, pacifist idealist, one with a clear understanding of politics and history, and a commitment to the underdog".

Jeremy Corbyn has described Karl Marx as a "great economist" and said he has read some of the works of Adam Smith, Marx and David Ricardo and has "looked at many, many others".

However, some have argued that Jeremy Corbyn is less radical than previously described: for example, the journalist George Eaton has called him "Keynesian".

Jeremy Corbyn named John Smith as the former Labour leader whom he most admired, describing him as "a decent, nice, inclusive leader".

Jeremy Corbyn said he was "very close and very good friends" with Michael Foot.

Analyses of domestic media coverage of Jeremy Corbyn have found it to be critical or antagonistic.

In July 2016, academics from the London School of Economics published a study of 812 articles about Jeremy Corbyn taken from eight national newspapers around the time of his Labour leadership election.

The study's director commented that "Our analysis shows that Jeremy Corbyn was thoroughly delegitimised as a political actor from the moment he became a prominent candidate and even more so after he was elected as party leader".

Jeremy Corbyn said that the media coverage had diverted his media team from helping him pursue "a political agenda on homelessness, on poverty in Britain, on housing, on international issues" to "rebutting these crazy stories, abusive stories, about me the whole time".

Jeremy Corbyn has been married three times and divorced twice, and has three sons with his second wife.

In 1987, Jeremy Corbyn married Chilean exile Claudia Bracchitta, granddaughter of Ricardo Bracchitta, with whom he has three sons.

Jeremy Corbyn missed his youngest son's birth as he was lecturing National Union of Public Employees members at the same hospital.

Jeremy Corbyn's second-eldest brother, Andrew, who was a geologist, died of a brain haemorrhage while in Papua New Guinea in 2001.

Jeremy Corbyn escorted the body from Papua New Guinea to Australia, where his brother's widow and children lived.

In 2012, Jeremy Corbyn went to Mexico to marry his Mexican partner Laura Alvarez, who runs a fair trade coffee import business that has been the subject of some controversy.

Alvarez has described Jeremy Corbyn as "not very good at house work but he is a good politician".

Jeremy Corbyn had previously owned a dog called Mango, described by The Observer in 1984 as his "only constant companion" at the time.

When interviewed by The Huffington Post in December 2015, Jeremy Corbyn refused to reveal his religious beliefs and called them a "private thing", but denied that he was an atheist.

Jeremy Corbyn has said that he is "sceptical" of having a god in his life.

Jeremy Corbyn compared his concerns about the environment to a sort of "spiritualism".

Jeremy Corbyn is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cycling.

Jeremy Corbyn enjoys reading and writing, and speaks fluent Spanish.

In 2015 Jeremy Corbyn supported a campaign for the club to pay its staff the London Living Wage.

Jeremy Corbyn is an avid "drain spotter" and has photographed decorative drain and manhole covers throughout the country.

Jeremy Corbyn co-edited with Len McCluskey the anthology Poetry for the Many, published in November 2023 by OR Books.

However, it is unclear as to the specific reasons as to why Jeremy Corbyn was invited to an interview.

Jeremy Corbyn has won the Parliamentary "Beard of the Year Award" a record six times, as well as being named as the Beard Liberation Front's Beard of the Year, having previously described his beard as "a form of dissent" against New Labour.

In 2016, Jeremy Corbyn was the subject of a musical entitled Jeremy Corbyn the Musical: The Motorcycle Diaries, written by journalists Rupert Myers and Bobby Friedman.