Five months after Mr Corbyn officially stepped down as Labour leader, a new book has shed light on the conflicts and tensions within the party during his tenure. ‘Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn’ – written by The Times journalists Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire – describes the behind-the-scenes dramas of the Islington North MP’s four-year rule, which ended in December with Labour’s worst election performance since 1935. One of the most contentious revelations made by the journalists was that Mr Corbyn failed to stamp out antisemitism in the Labour Party because he could not empathise with “relatively prosperous” British Jews.
The handling of antisemitism by the former Labour leader placed such a strain on his relationship with his closest ally John McDonnell that the pair did not speak “for months”.
The book also claims Mr Corbyn rejected plans by his chief of staff Karie Murphy to send him to Auschwitz as part of an attempt at reconciliation with the Jewish community, a decision that infuriated Mr McDonnell.
Mr Corbyn’s wife, Laura Alvarez, rejected such claims last week, and announced on Twitter a new book about how her husband was the victim of a media slur when he was leader would be published to set the record straight.
As more attention continues to be put on the former Labour leader, a video showing Mr Corbyn going head to head with Margaret Thatcher in a bitter parliamentary clash has emerged.
The two minute clip sees the veteran left winger attacking Mrs Thatcher for failing to provide enough funding to tackle homelessness in London.
In 1990, when the scene from the House of Commons was recorded, there were 2,000 homeless people in the capital, with a further 25,000 living in bed and breakfasts.
In the heated exchange, Mr Corbyn, the Islington North MP, said: “Will the Prime Minister accept that ten years ago in 1979 there were 2750 households in temporary accommodation in London? The current figure is over 25,000 and a further 2,000 people are sleeping on the streets.
“And that when her Government asked the local authorities what resources they required to deal with the homeless problem in London they asked for at least £480m? They were given less than one sixth of what they wanted.
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“If these were brought around much more quickly these would make a great contribution to relieving the homelessness.”
Many of the empty properties were sold off by the Tory government under right-to-buy legislation.
Mr Corbyn’s leadership campaign in 2015 shared the video with supporters on Facebook who rounded on the late Prime Minister.
