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Jeremy CorbynMP
Corbyn speaking at the 'No More War' event in Parliament Square in 2014
Member of Parliament
for Islington North
Incumbent
Assumed office
9 June 1983
Preceded byMichael O'Halloran
Majority21,194 (43.0%)
Personal details
BornJeremy Bernard Corbyn
(1949-05-26) 26 May 1949 (age 75)
Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, UK
Political partyLabour
Spouse(s)Jane Chapman (1974–1979)
Claudia Bracchitta (1987–1999)
Laura Alvarez (2015–present)
Children3
WebsiteOfficial website

Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (born 26 May 1949) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Islington North since 1983. A member of the Socialist Campaign Group, the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Amnesty International, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Stop the War Coalition, he is a candidate in the 2015 Labour Party leadership election.

Early life

Corbyn was born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, the younger brother of weather forecaster Piers Corbyn and the son of David, an electrical engineer and expert in power rectifiers, and Naomi, a maths teacher. His parents were peace campaigners who met during the Spanish Civil War. He attended Adams' Grammar School in Newport, Shropshire. After leaving school at 18, he spent two years doing Voluntary Service Overseas in Jamaica before becoming a full-time organiser for the National Union of Public Employees. After briefly studying at North London Polytechnic, he worked as an official with the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers, became a member of a public health authority and in 1974 was elected to Haringey Council, where he served for a decade. Corbyn worked on Tony Benn's unsuccessful 1981 campaign to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and was elected Secretary of the Islington Labour Party.

Member of Parliament

Corbyn was selected as the Labour Party candidate for his local seat of Islington North in 1982. In 1983 he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Islington North and immediately joined the Socialist Campaign Group, marking him out as one of the more left-wing Labour MPs, and sat on the London Regional Select Committee from 1983 to 1987. Shortly after his election he began writing a weekly column in the Morning Star, which he has continued to do up to the present day. He later sat on the Social Security Select Committee from 1992 to 1997, the London Regional Select Committee for a second time from 2009 to 2010, and the Justice Select Committee from 2010 to 2015. Corbyn was re-elected Member of Parliament for Islington North seven times, most recently in 2015, where he gained 60.24% of the vote and a majority of 21,194.

Political views

Corbyn is a self-described socialist and anti-poverty campaigner. He has campaigned strongly against tuition fees in England, the creation of academies and private finance initiative schemes. He supports the renationalisation of railways, the introduction of a living wage, a higher rate of income tax for the wealthiest in society, and an increase in corporation tax to fund public services such as free higher education. Corbyn has stated his preference for Britain to become a republic, but that he recognises that is not a major political issue at the present time. In 1991, Corbyn seconded the Commonwealth of Britain Bill brought forward by Tony Benn, which called for the transformation of the United Kingdom into a "democratic, federal and secular Commonwealth of Britain", with an elected President, devolution, abolition of the House of Lords and an equal representation of men and women in Parliament.

Corbyn speaking at the People's Assembly Demonstration in 2014

Corbyn was a well-known campaigner against Apartheid in South Africa, serving on the National Executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and was arrested in 1984 for protesting outside South Africa House. He is a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, regularly campaigning against conflict in Gaza and what the organisation considers to be Apartheid in Israel.

Corbyn has been a long-standing supporter of a United Ireland and controversially invited Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams to London in 1984. A second meeting in 1996 was cancelled following pressure from the Labour Party. He has been strongly criticised by Labour and Conservative MPs for holding meetings with members of the IRA in the Houses of Parliament to discuss topics such as conditions in Northern Irish prisons and the IRA ceasefire. In an interview on Northern Irish radio in August Corbyn objected to "all bombing" and welcomed the ceasefire and peace process, but would not express a direct opinion about the actions of the IRA.

He is a prominent member of Amnesty International, and campaigned for the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to be put on trial. Corbyn and fellow MP Robert Kilroy-Silk were reported to have scuffled in the House of Commons Division Lobby over the issue in 1985, but Kilroy-Silk denied reports he punched Corbyn. He is also a Venezuelan solidarity activist and has advocated for the rights of the forcibly-removed Chagossians to return to the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Corbyn has been a long-time campaigner on animal rights issues. He was one of the first signatories to Tony Banks' "Pigeon Bombs" Early Day Motion and in 2015 signed a motion calling for a ban on the importation of foie gras into the United Kingdom and was a sponsor of a motion opposing the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. He also sponsored two Early Day Motions relating to the McLibel case.

In 2013, Corbyn co-signed a letter which was published in The Guardian newspaper that indicated his support for the People's Assembly Against Austerity. He has also been a prominent sponsor of the March for Homes. In 2013, Corbyn attended a conference calling for dialogue between the UK and Argentine Governments on the question of Falkland Island sovereignty. In April 2014, he wrote an article for the Morning Star attributing the crisis in Ukraine to NATO. He said that the "root of the crisis" lay in "the US drive to expand eastwards" and described Russia's actions as "not unprovoked". Corbyn told The Guardian in August 2015: "I am not an admirer or supporter of Putin’s foreign policy, or of Russian or anybody’s else’s expansion". He has said it "probably was" a mistake to allow former Warsaw Pact countries to join NATO: "Nato expansion and Russian expansion – one leads to the other, and one reflects the other."

According to Andrew Gilligan of the The Daily Telegraph, Corbyn has received funding from the British charity Interpal and supports Raed Salah. Iran has been subjected to sanctions due to their nuclear program, in a talk titled The Case for Iran, Corbyn stated he wanted all the sanctions immediately lifted. Asked in an interview on Channel 4 News in July 2015 why he had called Hamas and Hezbollah "friends" at a parliamentary meeting, Corbyn explained that he had used the word in a "collective" sense, and does not condone the actions of either organisation. "There is not going to be a peace process unless there is talks involving Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas and I think everyone knows that", he argued.

Corbyn has also called for the lifting of sanctions against Iran related to their nuclear programme, however Corbyn opposes nuclear weapons in all circumstances.

Rebellion

During the Labour Government, between 1997 and 2010, Corbyn was the most rebellious Labour MP, regularly defying three-line whips. In the 2005–2010 Parliament alone he defied the whip 238 times, approximately 25% of all votes. He was one of sixteen 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.

Expenses

During the 2009 expenses scandal, Corbyn was revealed as claiming one of the lowest amount of expenses of any Member of Parliament. In 2010 he claimed the smallest amount of all 650 MPs; in an interview with the Islington Gazette he said: "I am a parsimonious MP...I think we should claim what we need to run our offices and pay our staff but be careful because it's obviously public money...in a year, rent for the (constituency) office in Finsbury Park is about £12,000 to £14,000." He rents his constituency office from the Ethical Property Company.

Political organisations

Corbyn speaking at an ATOS Demo in Parliament Square in 2012

Corbyn is Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) 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. He is also a Member of the Bolivia, Britain-Palestine, Great Lakes, Cheese, Dalits, Cycling, International Parliamentary Union and Traveller Law Reform APPGs. He is a patron of Centre 404, a service for those with educational disabilities, the Islington Music Forum, the Refugee Therapy Centre and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He is also Chair of the Dalit Solidarity Campaign and "Liberation", an anti-racist and anti-imperialist organisation. He is the joint president of the Islington Pensioners Forum, and is a trustee of the Socialist Campaign Group, Hanley Crouch Community Association and the Highbury Vale and Blackstock Trust.

As a long-standing trade unionist, Corbyn is a member of a number of trade union groups in Parliament. He is sponsored by several trade unions, including Unison, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and Unite the Union. He is a committed anti-fascist, having spoken at the major Unite Against Fascism and Trades Union Congress joint anti-British National Party rally in December 2001, and was the keynote speaker at Unite Against Fascism's annual conference in 2007.

Stop the War Coalition

On 21 September 2001, Corbyn was elected as the National Chair of the Stop the War Coalition, and helped to mobilise opposition to the Afghanistan War later that year. He was fiercely opposed to the Iraq War in 2003, and spoke at dozens of anti-war rallies in Britain and overseas. On 15 February 2003 he played a key role in organising what is widely regarded as the biggest political protest event in British history, when over one million people marched against the Iraq War. In 2006, Corbyn was one of 12 Labour MPs to support Plaid Cymru and the Scottish National Party's call for an inquiry into the Iraq War. He is strongly opposed to weapons of mass destruction and a long-time supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, being one of its three vice-chairs.

2015 Labour leadership bid

Corbyn speaking at the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival and Rally in 2015
Main article: Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2015

Following Labour's defeat in the 2015 general election on 7 May, Ed Miliband resigned as Leader of the Labour Party, triggering a leadership election. On 2 June, it was reported in various media sources that Corbyn was considering standing as a candidate, having been disillusioned by the lack of a perceived left-wing voice. The next day, Corbyn confirmed to his local newspaper, the Islington Tribune, that he would be standing in the election on a "clear anti-austerity platform". Corbyn added: "This decision is in response to an overwhelming call by Labour Party members who want to see a broader range of candidates and a thorough debate about the future of the party. I am standing to give Labour Party members a voice in this debate".

It was widely predicted that Corbyn would struggle to reach the required threshold of 35 nominations from Labour MPs to enter the contest, but he was able to secure a place on the ballot just minutes before the deadline closed on 15 June. Following a series of televised and radio debates with the other three candidates – Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Shadow Care Minister Liz Kendall – Corbyn went on to gain the support of the UK's two largest trade unions, Unite and UNISON, and received the highest number of supporting nominations from Constituency Labour Parties, winning over 100 by the end of July. A YouGov poll of Labour Party members subsequently projected him to win the contest, with 43% of first preferences and 53% of the final redistributed total. The surge in popularity was reported to have greatly surprised even Corbyn himself.

Corbyn's leadership bid has been the subject of fierce debate within the Labour Party. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair stated publicly that Labour would lose an election if they moved to the left, and that Labour Party members who felt their heart told them to vote for Corbyn should "get a transplant". Corbyn responded by saying that Blair's comments were "disappointing", and that he should wait for the release of the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War before passing any further comment. Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott criticised Blair's comments, saying that, contrary to what Blair had said, Corbyn's election "would not be a disaster" and that the Labour Party was "about the heart as well as the head". General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union Dave Ward said that Blairites in the Labour party were a "virus" and that Corbyn would provide an antidote, reconnecting the party with its left-wing roots. The Independent stated that many of Corbyn's policies, such as the renationalisation of railways and energy companies, have polled popularly with the general public. In an interview with The Independent on Sunday on 9 August he said: "I think we should talk about what the objectives of the party are, whether that’s restoring Clause Four as it was originally written or it’s a different one. But we shouldn’t shy away from public participation, public investment in industry and public control of the railways”.

Personal life

In 1974 Corbyn married Jane Chapman, then a fellow Labour Party councillor in Haringey, who described Corbyn as her "political soulmate"; the couple divorced in 1979. He later married Chilean exile Claudia Bracchita in 1987, with whom he had three sons. Following a disagreement over whether or not to send their son Ben to a grammar school – Corbyn opposes selection at 11 – the couple divorced in 1999, although Corbyn later said that he continued to "get on very well" with his ex-wife. Ben was later sent to Queen Elizabeth's School, which was Bracchita's first choice. In 2015, Corbyn married his long-term domestic partner Laura Alvarez.

Having described himself as parsimonious in the past, Corbyn told Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian in August 2015: "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 is teetotal and a vegetarian.

Awards

In 2013, Corbyn was awarded the Gandhi International Peace Award for his "consistent efforts over a 30-year Parliamentary career to uphold the Gandhian values of social justice and non‐violence." In the same year, he received the Grassroot Diplomat Initiative Honouree for his "ongoing support for a number of non-government organisations and civil causes". Corbyn has won the Parliamentary "Beard of the Year Award" a record five times, as well as the official Beard of the Year, having previously described his beard as "a form of dissent" against New Labour.

Notes

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  12. Frank Millar (26 September 1996). "Adams cancels Commons visit as Labour criticises Corbyn". irishtimes.com. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
  13. The Glasgow Herald, pg17, 17 Dec 1984
  14. "Speaker to investigate reports of 'IRA men at Westminster' (From Herald Scotland)". heraldscotland.com. 22 November 1996. Retrieved 23 July 2015.
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  20. "Early Day Motion 1255 - Pigeon Bombs". UK Parliament. 21 May 2004. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
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  38. Gosden, Emily (29 July 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn receives Unison's backing for Labour leadership". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  39. Perraudin, Frances (19 July 2015). "Labour leadership: Andy Burnham keeps door open for Jeremy Corbyn". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  40. Gander, Kashmira (22 July 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn set to win Labour leadership race, poll finds". The Independent. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  41. Helm, Tony (26 July 2015). "'This is like Stop the War with bells on': Jeremy Corbyn team shocked at momentum". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  42. Grice, Andrew (22 July 2015). "Tony Blair: Labour could lose two more elections if it drifts further to the left". The Independent. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  43. Dathan, Matt (22 July 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn: 'Tony Blair's big problem is that we're still waiting for the Chilcot Report to come out'". The Independent. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  44. Dathan, Matt (23 July 2015). "John Prescott tells Tony Blair it is Iraq and not Jeremy Corbyn that stops people voting Labour". The Independent. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  45. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33733322
  46. Dathan, Matt; Stone, Jon (23 July 2015). "The 9 charts that show the 'left-wing' policies of Jeremy Corbyn the public actually agrees with". The Independent. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  47. Merrick, Jane (9 August 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn to 'bring back Clause IV': Contender pledges to bury New Labour with commitment to public ownership of industry". The Independent on Sunday. London. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  48. Bloom, Dan (3 June 2015). "Who is Jeremy Corbyn? Everything you need to know about Labour's most left-wing leadership hopeful". Daily Mirror. London. ISSN 9975-9950. OCLC 223228477. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  49. What you need to know about Jeremy Corbyn at news.sky.com, accessed 27 July 2015
  50. Cowley, Jason (29 July 2015). "Jeremy Corbyn interview: "I think we have to think in terms of the disillusioned who didn't vote"". New Statesman. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  51. {{cite news|last=Crerar|first=Pippa|url=http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/full-interview-jeremy-corbyn-corybnmania-its-odd-im-a-normal-person-10439717.html%7Ctitle=Full interview: Jeremy Corbyn 'Corybnmania? It's odd... I'm a normal person'|work=London Evening Standard|date=5 August 2015|accessdate=10 August 2015
  52. "The Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award 2013". gandhifoundation.org. The Gandhi Foundation. 9 January 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
  53. "GULLIVER: Jeremy Corbyn - An MP with 'Gandhian values'". Camden New Journal. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  54. "Grassroot Diplomat Who's Who". Grassroot Diplomat. 15 March 2015. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  55. Malvern, Jack (10 January 2002). "Beards – Diary". The Times.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byMichael O'Halloran Member of Parliament
for Islington North
1983–present 		Incumbent
2015 Labour Party leadership election
Outgoing Leader: Ed Miliband
Elected
Defeated
Withdrew
Campaigns
Gandhi Foundation International Peace Award Recipients

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