Jeremy Corbyn Quotes
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Born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, Corbyn joined the Labour Party as a teenager. Moving to London, he became a trade union representative. In 1974, he was elected to Haringey Council and became Secretary of Hornsey Constituency Labour Party until elected as the MP for Islington North in 1983. His activism has included, Anti-Fascist Action, the Anti-Apartheid Movement, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and advocating for a united Ireland and Palestinian statehood. As a backbench MP, Corbyn routinely voted against the Labour whip, including New Labour governments. A vocal opponent of the Iraq War, he chaired the Stop the War Coalition from 2011 to 2015, and received the Gandhi International Peace Award and Seán MacBride Peace Prize. Analyses of his media coverage have found it critical or antagonistic. Following Ed Miliband's resignation after the party lost the 2015 general election, Corbyn won the 2015 party leadership election to succeed him. The party's membership increased sharply, during the leadership campaign and following his election.
Taking the party to the left, Corbyn advocated renationalising public utilities and railways, a less interventionist military policy, and reversals of austerity cuts to welfare and public services. Although critical of the European Union, he supported membership in the 2016 referendum. After Labour MPs sought to remove him in 2016 through a leadership challenge, he won a second leadership contest. In the 2017 general election, Labour increased its share of the vote to 40%, with its 10% rise their largest since 1945. This resulted in 30 more seats and a hung parliament; the Conservatives formed a minority government and Labour remained in Opposition. In 2019, after deadlock in Parliament over Brexit, Corbyn endorsed holding a referendum on the withdrawal agreement, with a personal stance of neutrality. In the 2019 general election, Labour's vote share fell to 32%, leading to a loss of 60 seats, leaving it with 202, its fewest since 1935. Corbyn resigned, triggering a leadership election in 2020 won by Keir Starmer.
During his tenure as leader, Corbyn was criticisd for antisemitism within the party. Corbyn has condemned antisemitism and apologised for its presence, while his leadership saw a strengthening of disciplinary procedures regarding hate speech and racism. 2020 and 2022 reports noted Corbyn's team inherited a dysfunctional disciplinary system which improved, and that antisemitism was used as a weapon by Corbyn's opponents and supporters. A 2020 Equality and Human Rights Commission inquiry found the party under his leadership was responsible for illegal discrimination and harassment. After asserting that the scale of antisemitism had been overstated for political reasons, Corbyn was suspended from the party in 2020. The suspension was lifted after a disciplinary warning, but the leadership denied him readmission to the parliamentary party. In 2022, Al Jazeera alleged, using an analysis of leaked documents, that senior officials attempted to undermine support for Corbyn and silence debate about Israel's treatment of Palestinians. In March 2023, Labour's National Executive Committee did not endorse Corbyn as a 2024 general election candidate. In May 2024, after that election was called, Corbyn announced he would stand as an independent candidate for Islington North; he was expelled from the Labour Party.