Jeremy Corbyn on 10 things that changed his life

The National

17 hours ago

Speaking to The Sunday National, Corbyn reflected on 10 things that shaped his life.
One: Hitchhiking home from Germany
In 1967, with just weeks of school left, 18-year-old Corbyn joined his brother Andrew on a drive to Germany. 'More fun than staying on,' he thought. His headteacher let him go, saying he would 'never achieve very much'.
The two Corbyns set off for Hanover in an Austin Heavy 12/4 – an antique of a vehicle which looks more like a Ford Model T than a modern motor.
A file photo of a different Austin Heavy'So, I went with him in this dreadful car, which weighed a tonne and frequently broke down,' Corbyn said. 'It wasn't a sort of pristine historic car, it was a bit of a rust bucket to be quite honest.
'The back seat was taken out to fill it up with the parts we needed to keep repairing the car on our journey.'
But despite the slow pace and frequent breakdowns, the Corbyns did make it to Hanover and Andrew headed off to work – leaving the younger brother with the question of how to get home.
READ MORE: Pam Duncan-Glancy among Scots recognised in honours list
With no money for a return trip, Corbyn hitchhiked. 'It was the first time I'd ever done anything completely on my own,' he recalled.
Two: Volunteering in Jamaica
Not long later, Corybn was accepted to voluntary service overseas. Initially meant to travel to Malawi, a last-minute change sent him to Jamaica instead.
'That was the first time I'd ever been on a plane,' Corbyn told The Sunday National. 'I'd never been to an airport before, so this was a huge adventure.
'I arrived in Jamaica and I've never forgotten getting out of the plane and suddenly feeling the heat, just the heat, the warmth of it – and also the richness of the vegetation and the culture. To me, I'd never experienced anything like that before.'
Corbyn was put to work as a 'sort of outdoor activities teacher' at Kingston College, where he became 'fascinated' with the 'culture, joy, and history' of the Caribbean nation.
The late Tory minister Enoch Powell caused outrage with his 1968 Rivers of Blood speech
When Enoch Powell gave his infamous 1968 Rivers of Blood speech, Corbyn saw the fallout firsthand.
'That caused the most unbelievable anger,' he said. 'The students were very, very angry because he had actually been the Tory minister who had recruited a lot of Caribbean people to go and work in the health service – and then decided that they were damaging to Britain's social wellbeing.
'Powell is now being repeated. The language used by the Prime Minister about being a 'nation of strangers', that's taken straight out of the Rivers of Blood speech.
'It's appalling, it's disgusting, it's disgraceful.'
Three: First visit to Israel and Palestine
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is currently in sharp focus due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Corbyn says he has visited the war-torn region nine times – but the first, back in 1998, stands out as 'a turning point in lots of ways'.
Whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu had been abducted from Italy and locked up in an Israeli jail for revealing secrets of Israel's still-publicly-unacknowledged nuclear weapons programme. Corbyn was part of a group of campaigners intent on securing Vanunu's release.
He recalled: 'We had tried to visit the prison – we were told we could and then we were told we couldn't. On another occasion I went with Susannah York and we were again told we could and then told we couldn't.
'So, Susannah, who had an amazing sense of presence about her, she just sat down on the road outside the prison. Now, a Hollywood film star sitting on the road anywhere is news, so all the TV cameras came.'
Vanunu was released six years later, in 2004, and Corbyn said the years-long campaign taught him about working with the people of Israel against the actions of the country's government – a lesson which in today's climate could not be more relevant.
While in Israel, Corbyn also visited Gaza for the first time, which he says showed him how 'so appallingly treated' the people of Palestine had been. 'That was many, many years ago, and now all those places I visited then and visited many times since have all been destroyed,' he added.
Four: First elected to Parliament
Jeremy Corbyn (left) pictured with Les Silverstone in 1975 (Image: Getty)Corbyn has been a fixture at Westminster for 42 years – longer than most politicians' careers.
He was first elected as the Labour MP for Islington North in 1983 in a moment which he says earned him a unique place in history.
'I was elected to Parliament having gone through an incredibly long selection process which lasted for six months,' Corbyn recalled. However, it was only the start of a 'very complicated campaign'.
Michael O'Halloran, who had been the local Labour MP, had defected to the SDP. So, Labour selected Corbyn. But the SDP then selected John Grant, also a sitting MP, to run for the seat. A put-out O'Halloran instead ran as an 'independent Labour' candidate.
Corbyn's victory therefore made him perhaps 'the first and only person to be elected by defeating two sitting MPs'.
Five: First visit to Westminster as an MP
Jeremy Corbyn (left) pictured with Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams (Image: Getty)Getting elected was one thing, going to Westminster as a MP was quite another. For Corbyn, it was a 'strange experience'.
'I discovered a lot of MPs already knew each other and I couldn't work this out,' he told The Sunday National.
'I asked somebody why this was the case. They said, 'well, they were all at Oxbridge together'. Both parties.
'OK, I noted that.'
Corbyn then said he was soon threatened with the removal of the Labour whip, particularly for 'supporting the need to have talks with the Irish republican movement as a way of bringing about a peace process'.
'That was like, almost instantly on entering parliament,' he recalled.
Six: His parents, Naomi and David
Corbyn names both of his parents, Naomi and David, as two of the most influential people in his life. He says he was 'always very close' with both of them, who were 'supportive' and 'quite political'.
'They met campaigning in support of the Spanish Republic in the 1930s, and I picked up a lot of their ideas and principles from them,' Corbyn said. 'I learned a great deal from them, not least from a huge quantity of publications of the Left Book Club, which they gave me.'
Of his mother Naomi, Corbyn recalled the first time she had ever visited him in parliament, soon after he was elected as an MP.
'I showed her all round, we had tea outside on the terrace overlooking the river and all the rest of it.
'And she then got up to go, so I walked with her to the tube station, and the last words she said to me as she left was: 'Very nice, dear. When are you gonna get a real job?''
Seven: Iraq war campaign
Jeremy Corbyn joins well-known faces including Emma Thompson on a Stop The War march (Image: Getty) Corbyn's long political career has seen him attend – or even lead – a lifetime of anti-war demonstrations. But for the former Labour leader, one particular campaign stands out.
'I opposed the Iraq war from the very beginning,' he said. 'After [9/11] and then the attack on Afghanistan, we formed the Stop the War Coalition.
'We had the inaugural meeting – I said to the organisers, I think you're being a bit optimistic, holding it in Conway Hall, you might not fill it.
'They said 'We've changed the venue to Friends Meeting House', and I said, 'Are you mad? It's huge. We've got to make sure we have a room that's full, not a place that's half empty'.'
As it turned out, all the estimates had been wildly off. On arrival, Corbyn said he found the venue 'overwhelmed' by the number of people.
As well as the main hall, he was asked to address five overflow meetings – 'including one that was at the bus stop outside'.
READ MORE: Iran hits Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Tehran after Israeli strikes kill 78 people
A similar pattern happened in February 2003, during the large-scale protests against the Iraq War.
He recalled a meeting with a police team who had asked how many people they expected to march in London.
'I said, I don't know, maybe 400,000. And this police officer said, 'No, no, no, you're completely wrong there. By our calculations, at least 800,000 will be coming'.'
On the day itself, the BBC reported that 'around a million people' had marched in London, with other rallies in Belfast and Glasgow, in one of the 'biggest days of public protest ever seen in the UK'.
Eight: The allotment
Around the same time as the anti-war movement was spreading across the western world, Corbyn got a call he'd been waiting for – he'd reached the top of the waiting list for an allotment.
While lists back then weren't quite as notoriously long as now, Corbyn says he had been waiting a year or two for that call – and it came 'right at the start of all the Iraq war protests'.
'I nearly said no,' he added. 'But then I said no, no, I can't turn down this chance, so in between all of this, I had to go and start work on the allotment.'
Corbyn calls his allotment his 'joy in life'.
'There's something magical about actually being there. On a winter's afternoon when there's almost nobody else there, and you're just there on your own digging, pruning, or whatever you happen to be doing – and then stealing into the shed and catching up on the football.'
But he says he enjoys it in the summer as well: 'Everybody walks past, gives each other advice on what they're doing.
'Usually the advice is very generously saying 'you're doing it all wrong, this is how you should do it'.'
That sounds a lot like being in parliament.
Nine: Meeting his wife Laura
Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn speaking in the Commons in March 2025 (Image: PA) This list is about the 10 things which changed Corbyn's life. But if it was about specific years, it seems likely 2003 would top it. Anti-war campaigns and allotments aside, it was also the year he met his wife: Laura.
Corbyn says she likes to try and grow maize from her home country of Mexico in the allotment .
That doesn't always work due to London's very un-Mexican climate – 'but it is beautifully coloured when it does come out'.
For a lifelong politician, where Corbyn met his wife is perhaps unsurprising: 'It happened in the Red Rose Club in Islington, which was the Labour centre in Islington at the time.'
For the next few years, the two maintained a largely long-distance relationship – but they continued to bond over politics.
'It's wonderful being able to visit Mexico and meet people who've been through awful circumstances – but nevertheless have amazing hope and determination to improve their communities,' he said.
Ten: The people of Islington North
Asked for the tenth and final thing for this list, Corbyn names all the people of Islington North, the constituency he has represented since 1983, which elected him as an independent for the first time in 2024 with just under 50% of the vote.
Giving an example of the inspiring people of his area, Corbyn recalls the story of the death of Makram Ali, who was killed in a terror attack in 2017 which saw a van driven into a crowd of Muslims gathered near the Finsbury Park Mosque.
Makram Ali was killed in a terror attack in London in 2017Corbyn praised 'the bravery of the imam at the mosque', saying: 'Obviously people were very, very angry at Darren Osborne – who had driven into the crowd and killed Makram – but the imam protected him from the crowd until the police arrived to arrest him.
'He stopped them beating him up, or doing worse. It was an incredibly principled and brave thing to do.'
Corbyn said he still attends annual commemorations of the attack with Makram's family, adding: 'You learn from people who've gone through the most amazing adversity.'
That, it would seem, is a lesson Corbyn has lived by.