Jeremy Corbyn, Britain's unlikely EU warrior, makes last stand on Brexit

The speaker was Jeremy Corbyn, then a backbench Member of Parliament on the hard left of the Labour Party. He was addressing a rally against the European Union's Lisbon Treaty that gave Brussels greater powers.Today, Corbyn is his party's leader and he is fighting a very different campaign: Preventing Prime Minister Boris Johnson leading Britain out of the EU,"do or die," on Oct 31.

Labour MP Neil Coyle, who backed Corbyn to become party leader in 2015, sums up why for many people he is a divisive figure, and why he came to regret lending Corbyn his support:"He has 30 years of baggage on dodgy issues," Coyle told Reuters. Since becoming leader, Corbyn has appeared to change tack on some issues. He has said he opposes leaving the EU on terms that will hurt ordinary Britons and believes any"Brexit" deal must be put to a popular vote. He has supported Britain's commitment to NATO and said he regrets calling members of Hamas and Hezbollah friends.

Dennis Skinner worked alongside Corbyn in the Labour Party's Socialist Campaign Group of left-wing lawmakers. One of nine children, and the son of a miner, Skinner embodies Labour's working class roots. Last December, Corbyn flew to Mexico for the inauguration of leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has called Corbyn his"eternal friend." Corbyn's third wife is Mexican lawyer and activist Laura Álvarez.Corbyn was elected to parliament in 1983 as MP for London's Islington North, a patchwork district of multi-million pound Georgian homes and social housing. He has increased his majority from just over 5,000 in 1983 to more than 33,000 now.

Ronnie Campbell, MP for the northeastern English constituency of Blyth Valley, first met Corbyn in 1987 and remembers how the new MP's scruffy appearance, in particular his refusal to wear a tie, challenged parliamentary tradition."The Tories would get up and say, 'Mr Speaker, there's somebody in this chamber not properly dressed.' And it was Jeremy sitting in the back with no tie.

Corbyn was one of the sponsors of the Stop the War Coalition, a campaign group set up in 2001 when George W Bush announced the"war on terror." Stop the War says it opposes the British establishment's"disastrous addiction to war." McDonnell has since become Labour's finance policy chief. Campbell recalled McDonnell telling Corbyn:"It's your turn anyway. Get on the paper, at least try to get on the paper. And Jeremy said, 'OK, I'll have a bash at it'."

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