Corbyn’s wife: ‘Diane was hostile and jealous. She came to my flat – I was shocked. It’s still painful’
DIANE VERSUS JANE
THE year 1979 was a bleak time for Labour activists, consigned as they were to the political wasteland following Margaret Thatcher’s landslide victory in the General Election.
But as Cambridge graduate and rising star of the Left Diane Abbott strode purposely up to the door of her love rival Jane Chapman, politics was the last thing on her mind.
The rented one-bedroom flat above a jeweller’s shop in Crouch End, North London, was the bolthole of Councillor – now Professor – Chapman after leaving her husband Jeremy Corbyn just a few months earlier.
But it seemed that mere separation was not enough for Ms Abbott, who was intent on banishment.
She had embarked on a relationship with Corbyn, since nicknamed the ‘Sexpot Trot’ by Westminster wags baffled by his unfathomable attraction to women.
Because both Prof Chapman and her estranged husband were Labour councillors in the borough, a certain amount of contact was inevitable, but ‘jealous’ Diane was not happy about that.
Prof Chapman said she had heard rumours that the pair were dating from Labour Party colleagues.
She had recently separated from Corbyn – whom she married five years earlier in 1974 at the age of 24 – after tiring of her husband’s intense focus on Left-wing politics. Instead, she desired some youthful fun. But absolute confirmation that her recently estranged husband had taken up with someone else only came when Ms Abbott, a rising star in Left-wing Labour circles, who she had never met before, turned up unannounced on her doorstep one evening late in 1979.
Prof Chapman recalled that the young solicitor’s sudden appearance at the flat came as ‘quite a shock’.
Describing Ms Abbott as ‘nervous, tense and slightly hostile’, she invited her into her home where she said they had a short and unpleasant exchange.
Reluctant to go into the exact details of their conversation, Prof Chapman said: ‘She wasn’t very nice when she called on me, but I’m not going to go into that.
‘She told me to get out of town. That was basically how the conversation went.
‘But I was still a councillor. I had been elected for years and that hadn’t expired, so I still had responsibilities. And I was still going to meetings and Jeremy and I were still seeing each other there.’
Prof Chapman was herself well regarded in the Labour Party at the time. She stood as a candidate in two General Elections under the name Mrs Jane Chapman.
In 1974, she received 9,714 votes in Dorking, Surrey, and in 1979 came second in Dover and Deal in Kent with 22,664 votes, leaving the Conservative candidate with a majority of just under 8,000.
She said: ‘I was more senior than Jeremy at the time.’
It is partly this success, as well as an inevitable degree of continuing contact with her former husband at meetings, which she believes drove Ms Abbott’s attempt to get her out of the picture by confronting her about Corbyn.
Prof Chapman admitted that while suggestions Ms Abbott had scuppered her hopes of reconciling with Corbyn were untrue, memories of the whole episode and breakdown of her marriage were still upsetting.
‘There was no talk of reconciling,’ she said. ‘But I still feel a bit sensitive about it. Even after all these years, it’s still very painful.’
Prof Chapman initiated the split, saying: ‘I felt like I wanted a different work-life balance. It was difficult for him.
‘He stayed in the flat and bought out my share. We’ve remained friends, but we don’t see each other very often.’
It has been reported that Corbyn and Ms Abbott, both local Labour activists in North London, got together in 1979 after being thrown together at late-night political meetings. The lovers are said to have taken a romantic motorbike holiday behind the Berlin Wall to Communist East Germany.
There was even talk of naked alfresco romps together in a field in the Cotswolds – an episode Ms Abbott once described as her ‘finest half-hour’, though she did not actually name her companion.
But Prof Chapman, who enjoyed a number of trips abroad on Corbyn’s motorbike when she was married to him, said until last week she had been unaware he had taken Ms Abbott on a break too.
‘I didn’t know about them going on holiday together,’ she maintained.
In common with many Labour supporters, Prof Chapman feels that her ex-husband has missed an opportunity to promote women in the Shadow Cabinet.
She finds it surprising because she says he’s always been well read in feminist literature.
‘He believes very strongly in women’s equality. When I left him, one of his final words was to tell me to “read Simone de Beauvoir.” It’s not that he’s a chauvinist. I think the issue is attaching enough importance to women at all levels.’
She believes that Corbyn’s attitude to women may have been shaped by his lack of sisters when he was growing up.
‘I’m sure he believes in the princi- ples of women’s equality – it’s just got to be higher on his agenda.
‘He was one of four brothers. Maybe that makes a difference. So maybe he didn’t see sufficiently certain aspects of femininity that we as women think are important.
‘If you’re in an all-male environment apart from just your mother –
I didn’t know they went on a holiday together...
even if you go to a co-ed school – you probably don’t get enough input of women’s ways of doing things.
‘At a formative age, the female approach was in the minority because he had his brothers.
‘I would like to see a woman Chancellor and a woman Home Secretary.’ Prof Chapman believes Corbyn needs to sharpen up his act when dealing with the media. She said: ‘I think he does need to engage with the media more, but in a very thoughtful way.
‘He shouldn’t see that as sacrificing his authenticity. The public appreciate that.
‘I think a better communication strategy can complement his natural authenticity. There is an amount of anti-media feeling in the Labour Party historically. That’s always been the case and for good reason – the press have always been very damaging to Labour, so I can understand that antipathy to the media.
‘But this is the 21st Century and we’ve got to accept that the media won’t go away.’
When asked if Corbyn should have sung the National Anthem at last week’s Battle of Britain memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral, Prof Chapman said: ‘As leader of the Opposition, the spotlight is on him and he needs to appear patriotic.’ Asked about him leaving his top shirt button undone at the service, she said: ‘I think he needs to improve his image and I think it’s considerate to the organisers of such events if you wear the right kind of things that fit in.
‘Gone are the days when you could be outrageous.’