GET OUT OF TOWN
EXCLUSIVE Jeremy Corbyn’s first wife tells MoS how their marriage really ended: After his lover-turned-Minister Diane Abbott made ‘hostile’ home visit... and told her:
JEREMY CORBYN’S ‘jealous’ lover Diane Abbott staged an astonishing confrontation with his wife – ordering her to ‘get out of town’, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Ms Abbott, then a young Leftwing activist, stunned her love rival Professor Jane Chapman – Corbyn’s first wife – by turning up on her doorstep out of the blue to demand that she leave London.
In an exclusive interview, Prof Chapman was scathing about Ms Abbott’s ‘hostile’ behaviour which she thought was fuelled by resentment over her continuing contact with Corbyn, the new Labour leader, even though they had separated months earlier.
‘I was shocked – she didn’t want me around,’ said Prof Chapman, speaking days after Corbyn chose Ms Abbott for his Shadow Cabinet.
‘She told me to get out of town. That was basically how the conversation went. She told me because she wanted a clear run. I was in the media a lot then because of my political work and she wished I wasn’t.’
Asked if she thought Ms Abbott harboured feelings of jealousy towards her, she replied: ‘I think
she did. But I was still a councillor. I still had responsibilities. I was still going to meetings and Jeremy and I were still seeing each other there.’
Prof Chapman, who only months before the confrontation had lost narrowly as a Labour parliamentary candidate, also told The Mail on Sunday in an exclusive interview how:
The breakdown of their marriage and Corbyn’s affair with Ms Abbott still holds ‘painful’ memories;
She was disappointed Corbyn had failed to promote more women to his Shadow Cabinet;
The Labour leader’s attitude to women may have been influenced by growing up in an almost all-male environment as the youngest of four brothers;
She had been unaware of Corbyn’s trip with Ms Abbott to East Germany.
The revelation of the women’s frosty encounter in 1979 not only exposes the volatile personality of Ms Abbott, the new Shadow International Development Secretary, but also raises fresh questions over Corbyn’s judgment in appointing his former girlfriend to the Shadow Cabinet.
It comes after a disastrous first week for the Labour leader. Corbyn has already faced criticism in his choice of hardline Left-winger John McDonnell – who once spoke of ‘honouring’ the IRA – as Shadow Chancellor. He has also promoted Lord Mike Watson – jailed for arson in 2004 – to an education job and union stalwart Ian Lavery, once convicted of football hooliganism, to Shadow Charities Minister.
Referring to the appointment of his former girlfriend, Prof Chapman said: ‘He’s probably making life more difficult for himself. There are a whole number of women who are really well experienced who could have had senior posts. I think Angela Eagle could – Harriet Harman, Yvette Cooper. It would have been a unifying gesture to have had Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall.’
Prof Chapman was unimpressed with Ms Abbott’s attack on new MP Jess Phillips for daring to question Corbyn’s failure to give top jobs to women. She said: ‘I think Jess was right to ask the question.’
Last night, Ms Abbott did not return calls from the MoS.