Jeremy Corbyn has enjoyed a long and colourful political career spanning several decades since he was first elected as an MP for Islington North in 1983.
The veteran rebel was put forward for the leadership of the Labour Party in 2015 following the resignation of Ed Miliband with seemingly little hope of success.
But something unusual happened: He appeared to catch a mood on the centre left as Labour members insisted they needed a more “genuine” leader.
The result was that, in September 2015, Mr Corbyn romped home on the first ballot with a commanding 59.5 per cent of the vote.
He also shocked a certain Theresa May two years later at a snap general election in June 2017.
Despite some early polls putting Labour more than 20 points behind the Tories, the party received its biggest election upsurge since 1945 and helped deprive Mrs May of a parliamentary majority.
He stepped down after a poor performance in the ‘Brexit election’ of 2019, but remains in the hearts of many voters.
We look back at some of his best quotes:
– “Life is life. Some of the wisest people you meet are sweeping our streets.”
– “I am just an ordinary person trying to do an ordinary job.”
– “We can create a new kind of politics: kinder, more respectful, but courageous, too.”
– “I want a world of peace. I’m not interested in bombs. I’m not interested in wars. I’m interested in peace.”
– “Labour is the voice that says to the many, at home and abroad: ‘You don’t have to take what you’re given. You may be born poor but you don’t have to stay poor. You don’t have to live without power and without hope. You don’t have to set limits on your talent and your ambition – or those of your children. You don’t have to be grateful to survive in a world made by others.”
– “You pay more in wages, get more in in tax, you get people living a higher standard, you get more money. It’s a kind of circle.”
– “I think there’s good in everybody.”
– “You should never be so high and mighty you can’t listen to somebody else and learn something from them. Leadership is as much about using the ear as using the mouth.”
– “I’m a leader, not a dictator. I want to persuade people rather than threaten or control them.”
– “We’ve got to stand up for what we believe in as a Labour movement. And that means the party’s membership needs to be even bigger so it becomes a genuinely mass organisation.”
– “We are not doing celebrity, personality, abusive politics – we are doing ideas. This is about hope.”
– “We are one of the richest countries in the world, and there is absolutely no reason why anyone should have to live in poverty.”
– “The common good is the aspiration of all of us.”
– “United we stand, divided we fall is one of the oldest and truest slogans of the Labour movement.”
– “Let’s defend the principle of a society that cares for everyone and everyone cares for everyone else.”
– “Nuclear weapons are not a defence.”
– “They know we will go after the tax dodgers, the bad bosses and the big polluters so that everybody in our country gets a fair chance in life.”
– “I’m just a very normal person, living in north London, doing my best for my area and to put forward some serious debate on issues in the party.”
– “It is time we recognised the huge contribution that migration has made to the economic growth of this country.”
– “For the many not the few.”
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