Jeremy Corbyn

Biography

Jeremy Corbyn was born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, in 1949 and joined the Labour Party as a teenager. After moving to London he worked as a trade union representative, was elected to Haringey Council in 1974, and became secretary of the Hornsey constituency party.

He has represented Islington North in the House of Commons since 1983. A left-wing backbencher who often voted against the Labour whip, including under New Labour, he campaigned with the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, supported Palestinian statehood and a united Ireland, opposed the Iraq War, and chaired the Stop the War Coalition from 2011 to 2015.

After Labour's 2015 defeat Corbyn won the party leadership, and party membership grew sharply. He moved Labour to the left, calling for public ownership of utilities and railways and an end to austerity. He beat a challenge from Owen Smith in 2016 and raised Labour's vote share to 40 per cent in the 2017 general election, but faced criticism over antisemitism in the party, and in 2019 Labour fell to its fewest seats since 1935. He stood down in April 2020 when Keir Starmer was elected leader.

Corbyn was later suspended from the party, kept his seat as an independent in 2024 and was expelled from the party for standing against it. In 2025 he co-founded Your Party with Zarah Sultana and in March 2026 became its parliamentary leader.