DON'T DATE A JEREMY

As Diane Abbott relates in the tale of her relationship with Jeremy Corbyn, romance and socialism do not make natural bedfellows and are best kept separate, writes Helen Coffey

- Helen Coffey

As someone who has always been something of a Jeremy Corbyn fan girl – I joined the Labour Party in 2015 purely inspired by his rousing leadership bid and was thrilled when he got the gig – it pains me to say the following: I don’t think he’d be much fun to go out with.

Maybe I’d already have surmised as much had I ever really thought about it. But now, it’s official. Sharing an excerpt from her forthcoming memoir in The Guardian this weekend, Labour MP Diane Abbott opened up about her romantic relationship with Corbyn in the late Seventies. The picture she painted was… well, “austere” might be the kindest word for it.

While she talked affectionately enough about the man who would become a lifelong friend and political ally, Abbott gave a fairly damning impression that felt eerily familiar to many women who read it. One passage in particular quickly went viral on social media:

“I began to realise that, realistically, ours was not a match made in heaven. We were too different. I had a range of interests and enjoyed reading and the theatre, but Jeremy was 99 per cent absorbed in party politics. The only other thing I remember him spending time on was growing vegetables in his back garden. Once, after I lamented our lack of social activity as a couple, he pondered it for a few days and told me we were going out. Feeling excited, I dressed up nicely and we bundled into the car. I had no idea where we were going – perhaps a nice wine bar? It turned out Jeremy’s idea of a social outing was to drive me to Highgate cemetery and proudly show me the tomb of Karl Marx.”