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White House Correspondent
Diane Abbott has recalled her first meeting with Jeremy Corbyn in her new book, describing how the two young Labour activists were “drawn to one another” from the moment they met.
The MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington described the man who would go on to lead the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020 as “funny and kind”, saying she was “impressed by his political commitment”.
In her book, A Woman Like Me, Ms Abbott describes meeting Mr Corbyn for the first time at the 1978 Labour Party conference in Blackpool nine years before she was first elected to Parliament.
She was introduced to a young Mr Corbyn by fellow Labour activist and future London Mayor Ken Livingston while she was “hurrying between one meeting and another on the blowy Blackpool seafront”.
Recalling the encounter, Ms Abbot wrote: “We were drawn to one another from the moment we met: Jeremy saw me as energetic, determined and bright, and I found him funny and kind.
“I was impressed by his political commitment: he had long been a committed anti-racist and strongly opposed apartheid, so we had plenty in common and plenty to talk about.”
The two Labour activists, who would later go on to be close political allies when Mr Corbyn led the party, began dating soon after meeting but ended their relationship the following year.
She said the relationship broke down because they were “too different”, blaming the breakup in part on the fact that Mr Corbyn was “99 per cent absorbed in party politics”, while Ms Abbott said she “had a range of interests and enjoyed reading and theatre”.
“The only other thing I remember him spending time on was growing vegetables in his back garden”, she added.
It was in 1979, Ms Abbott said, that she began to realise that they were “not a match made in heaven”.
She recalled one encounter where Mr Corbyn took her to see the tomb of Karl Marx as a surprise.
“Feeling excited, I dressed up nicely and we bundled into the car. I couldn’t wait for this surprise and had no idea where we were going – perhaps a nice wine bar? It turned out that Jeremy’s idea of a social outing was to drive me to Highgate cemetery and proudly show me the tomb of Karl Marx”, she wrote.
Ms Abbott, who later served as shadow home secretary under Mr Corbyn, said their decision to part ways was “not an acrimonious split”, adding: “Jeremy does not do acrimony”.
She added: “A couple of our mutual friends – the Haringey councillor Bernie Grant and Islington councillor Keith Veness – helped me move my belongings out of Jeremy’s house.
“There were no regrets for either of us: for me, meeting Jeremy in 1978 had steered my political life in a new direction, and for that I was grateful.”
