Labour supporters will be shocked to see Socialist lad himself at Conservative HQ in Wellington.
A blast from the past has brought a vintage photo of a bearded leader of the Labour Party in the heart of enemy territory.
There On Business
The young Jezza was living on the outskirts of Newport at the time and a key figure in SCAR (Shropshire Committee Against Racialism), who were presenting a petition to the local Tory MP, Tony Trafford.
The anti-racism group was chaired by George Evans who was a local Conservative.
George, now aged 95, remembers Corbyn well.
“As far as anti-racism was concerned, I got on with him 100 per cent.”
Selecting A Conservative Chairman
George mentions “The Young Socialists were enthusiasts, and sixth-formers mostly (Corbyn in fact would have been 22 at the time) who wanted to have a Shropshire committee against racism, but thought they had a reputation of being wild lefties, which was fair enough, and wanted for preference a chairman who wasn’t connected with the Labour Party who was not a racist. They picked on me.”
“He came across to me as a very enthusiastic and intelligent young fellow, with a lot of enthusiasm for things you might call Marxist if you are that way inclined – left wing ideas, not all of which I disagreed with in spite of my membership of the Tory Party.
Jeremy Is No Racist
Indian wives at that time were not allowed to learn English according to George and the group SCAR strove for that to be changed.
As for the allegations of anti-Semitism which have been laid against Corbyn, George said: “Absolute rubbish. I cannot imagine for one moment that Jeremy Corbyn could possibly be an anti-Semite.
“What the problem is is that he is in favour of all sorts of people, particularly people who are persecuted, and he is in favour of Palestinian Arabs who are persecuted. He has supported them when they have been persecuted by the Israeli jews. That isn’t anti-Semitism at all.”
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