Researching Jeremy Corbyn

Born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, and raised in Wiltshire and Shropshire, 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 being elected as the MP for Islington North in 1983; he has been reelected to the office nine times. His activism has included roles in 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 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. A vocal opponent of the Iraq War, he chaired the Stop the War Coalition from 2011 to 2015, a period when he received the Gandhi International Peace Award; he also won the Seán MacBride Peace Prize in 2017. According to some studies, media coverage of Corbyn has often been hostile and misrepresented his views. Corbyn has condemned antisemitism, but has been criticised by political opponents for his past associations with individuals accused of antisemitism.

Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party in 2015. The party's membership increased sharply, both during the leadership campaign and following his election. Taking the party to the left, he 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 continued membership in the 2016 referendum. After Labour MPs sought to remove him in 2016, he won a second leadership contest, defeating Owen Smith. In the 2017 general election, Labour increased its share of the vote to 40%, with its 9.6% vote rise their largest improvement since the 1945 general election. Under Corbyn, Labour achieved a net gain of 30 seats and a hung parliament, but the Conservative Prime Minister, Theresa May, 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%, its lowest since 2015, leading to a net loss of 60 seats and leaving it with 202, its fewest since 1935. Corbyn said he would not lead Labour into the next election, triggering a leadership election in 2020 that was won by Keir Starmer, his Shadow Brexit Secretary. In October 2020, Corbyn was suspended from the Labour Party after he said that antisemitism in Labour had been overstated for political reasons. The suspension was lifted a month later, but Labour refused to restore the whip, denying him readmission to the Labour parliamentary party. He still sits as an independent as of December 2021.