Past debt shows Corbyn ‘is not fit to govern’
JEREMY Corbyn was yesterday accused of being “not fit to govern” after it emerged he plunged his family’s finances into such chaos that it faced bankruptcy.
A new book claims the Labour leader was told to sell his house after racking up debts of £30,000 during his second marriage.
Set for publication later this month, it gives a bleak insight into his domestic and political life.
During his marriage to Claudia Bracchitta, Mr Corbyn asked friend Reg Race in late 1996 why he had so much debt.
Mr Race, an ex-MP who became a financial consultant, said it did not take a “genius” to work out what was wrong, adding he was “in danger of bankruptcy”.
Papers showed Mr Corbyn owed £30,000 with several personal loans guaranteed by his income as an MP, according to the book.
The main reason for the debt was apparently Mr Corbyn’s decision to cover the rent and some staff salaries at a community centre in north London, where he had his constituency office, out of his own pocket.
Controversial
He also owed money to the Inland Revenue for unpaid staff national insurance and pensions contributions, the book claims.
The bank could have seized the house to recover the cash.
Mr Race told him he had little choice but to sell the family home. It was sold in 1999 for £365,000 and the family moved to a building that had been converted into bedsits.
The couple were by that time estranged and Mr Corbyn’s wife took the top floors with their three sons, Sebastian, Benjamin and Tommy, while he took the basement.
Mr Race said: “He’s not fit to be leader of the Labour Party and not fit to be Britain’s prime minister.”
Mr Corbyn has come under fire for his willingness in the past to meet controversial figures such as Irish republican Gerry Adams.
And Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said the revelations were a warning of what the country would face under a government under Corbyn with John McDonnell as chancellor.
“We are not talking about a bit of Francois Hollande-style socialism where they soak the rich until it crashes the economy,” he said. “If we are hit with a Corbyn-McDonnell government it would be the full Venezuela treatment where you end up eating your pets.”
The book, Dangerous Hero by Tom Bower, is based on 18 months of research. It claims Mr Corbyn wants unrestricted immigration and that anyone who disagrees with his assessment that all migrant communities are victims of white imperialists are racists.
Among the domestic insights are claims that he does not read books, failed to do chores, would turn up to meetings and holidays with his
‘If we are hit with a Corbyn government it would be the full Venezuela treatment where you end up eating your pets’
family late, and ate cold baked beans for his dinner. After his first wife, Jane Chapman, left him he reportedly encouraged some political allies to visit him at his flat, where shadow chancellor Diane Abbott, his then girlfriend, was naked on the bed.
The book claims he did nothing to protect Jewish and moderate Labour MPs from attacks. Labour MPs are set to discuss the party’s handling of anti-Semitism again at a meeting in Parliament tonight.
Deputy leader Tom Watson said a Labour branch is being investigated and accused it of “bullying” its Jewish MP Luciana Berger by moving a motion of no confidence in her.
Some members in the Liverpool Wavertree Constituency Labour Party are “trying to drive out” Mrs Berger, a prominent critic of Mr Corbyn. Mr Watson said: “She’s being bullied.” A Labour spokesman said: “Tom Bower’s poorly researched and tawdry hatchet job is packed with obvious falsehoods and laughable claims: from events that never took place to invented conversations and elementary errors of fact.”