Jeremy Corbyn's Biography

Jeremy Corbyn was born on 26 May 1949 in Chippenham, Wiltshire.

His mother, who was a maths teacher at Stafford Grammar School for Girls, met his father whilst they campaigned on the Spanish Civil War. They were both peace activists.

Jeremy Corbyn went to Adams Grammar School in Newport.

After school, he did voluntary work for two years in Jamaica with the VSO.

Back in the UK, he worked for trade unions, and became a councillor in the London borough of Haringey before being elected as the Labour MP for Islington North in 1983.

In 2007, Jeremy Corbyn supported John McDonnell's bid for the Labour leadership.

In July 2015, Jeremy Corbyn ended his speech in a parliamentary debate on the Budget:

"This Budget is a trick — a trick of smoke and mirrors. It hits the poorest, it does nothing to solve the housing problem, it creates greater inequality in our society, and it is paid for by the sale of public assets from which we should all be able to benefit. I hope that one day there will be a Government in this country that set as their priority a commitment to reduce inequality, to get rid of destitution and poverty in our society, and to bring about a society that is more at ease with itself. Inequality is the only message the Chancellor seemed able to offer today."

Previously in 2015, Jeremy Corbyn had announced his decision to run as Leader of the Labour Party.

On 12 September 2015, Jeremy Corbyn gained 59.5% of the votes cast with 251,417 votes - significantly higher than his rivals Andy Burnham (19%), Yvette Cooper (17%) and Liz Kendall (4.5%) and was thereby elected leader of the Labour Party.

The following year, following the UK voting in a referendum to leave the Euopean Union, Jeremy Corbyn faced a backlash from the parliamentary Labour Party with numerous resignations from the shadow cabinet.

In July 2016, Angela Eagle announced that she was going to challenge Corbyn for the leadership of the Labour Party.

On 12 July 2016, the National Executive Committee ruled that Jeremy Corbyn as the incumbent would be automatically included on the ballot in Labour's leadership contest and did not need the support of 51 MPs or MEPs that his challengers would require.

As a result Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith faced each other in a campaign for the leadership of the Labour Party.

Corbyn ended up winning with 61.8% of the vote.

On 8 June 2017, Corbyn led the Labour Party to a better result than most people had expected, gaining 32 MPs.

However, in the General Election on 12 December 2019, Labour under Corbyn performed poorly and he immediately announced "I will not lead Labour at the next election."

He later resigned and after an internal election amongst the Labour Party he was replaced by Sir Keir Starmer.

In October 2020, Jeremy Corbyn was expelled from the Labour Party over his reaction to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's highly critical report on anti-semitism in the Labour Party.