Jeremy Corbyn at a demonstration to save A&E services at the Whittington Hospital

WHEN Jeremy Corbyn was first elected to the House of Commons, Bob Marley and David Bowie were in the chart top ten, E.T. had been on at the cinema for months and Charlie Nicholas was soon to be lighting up Highbury for Arsenal.

Today (Friday) marks the 40th anniversary of the day he became the MP for Islington North for the first time – the start of an unbroken run as the constituency’s representative.

In an opinion piece marking the milestone in today’s Tribune – he has the fifth-longest continuous service in among MPs in the chamber – Mr Corbyn thanks the residents and organisations that have supported him through the years and on a myriad of issues.

“Over the past 40 years, I’ve always been struck by how willing people are to join campaigns to preserve our green spaces, schools, hospitals and community hubs,” the former leader of the Labour Party said.

“Whether it’s preventing the government from turning Archway Road into a motorway, turning a disused railway siding into what we now love as Gillespie Park, or saving the Whittington Hospital’s A&E department (proof of Nye Bevan’s conviction that the NHS would last as long as there were people willing to fight for it), huge victories have been achieved by principled, tireless and people-powered campaigns.

SEE ALSO CORBYN ‘THANK YOU ISLINGTON NORTH – IT’S AN HONOUR TO REPRESENT YOU’

Four decades in the job means he knows every street on his patch – and the people living in them recognise him instantly. And this week there were congratulatory messages from the community.

Mr Corbyn pictured a year into his 40 year run as an MP in 1984

Hussain Jabar, who runs Gadz Coffee Shop in Finsbury Park, said: “You can’t find anyone, especially in this time, who is like Jeremy Corbyn. The man never changes, he’s always the same – whether he goes up, down, gets power, loses power, gets sick, get anything, he’s still the same.”

He added: “Always in his mind is one thing until he dies: ‘How can I help you? How can I do something to fix this?”

Mr Jabar has decorated the inside of his cafe with images of Mr Corbyn.

Outside, he’s hung a sign that demands the Labour Party “restore the whip” to Mr Corbyn.

The cafe is a well-known favourite of Mr Corbyn’s, where he comes in to order what Mr Jabar calls “Jeremy Corbyn Falafel”.

Hussain Jabar

Mr Corbyn had the Labour whip removed in 2020 and, although still a member of the party, sits as an independent MP on the green benches.

After the Equality and Human Rights Commission found Labour had breached equalities law with its response to anti-Semitism, Mr Corbyn responded by saying: “One anti-Semite is one too many, but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.”

He refused to withdraw these remarks, with Sir Keir Starmer’s supporters insisting that he did not understand the hurt that some Jewish members had felt.

Earlier this year, Mr Starmer – who had been a front bench spokesperson under Mr Corbyn’s leadership – brought a motion to the party’s National Executive Committee aimed at blocking him from being the Labour candidate in Islington North again.

It was passed and officially a new candidate is being sought, although local organisers have protested that the choice should be the matter of a local vote.

In Sussex Way, the North Nineteen pub erected a mural of the MP emblazoned with “the honest face of politics” in 2017.

This was when former Conservative prime minister Theresa May believed she could destroy the Labour ranks in a polls battle against Mr Corbyn.

She called a general election when she didn’t have to and ended up surrendering the Conservatives’ majority as Labour upset the pundits’ predictions.

The mural on the pub is still there six years on and landlord Tony Cullen said: “He’s honest, he says it as it is. Being in the pub, and having the mural up, we’ve spoken to many, many people who Jeremy has helped with housing, social care, and other issues.

“They were getting nowhere and he was able to step in and help. He helped me and my wife when we were looking to get council housing and when we were very, very young and having children.”

Hakan Topkaya at Archway Kebab and Mr Corbyn, below, at a recent political rally [Simon Lamrock]

Close to the pub lies Mr Corbyn’s favourite kebab shop, Archway Kebab in Junction Road.

According to manager Hakan Topkaya, Mr Corbyn frequently comes in to buy a houmous and falafel kebab – the MP is a vegetarian.

The shop was opened in 1982 by Mr Topkaya’s father, just a year prior to Mr Corbyn’s first became an MP.

“My dad has known Jeremy for 35 out of the 40 years he’s been here,” said Mr Topkaya.

“There are more than 20 million Kurds in Turkey who can’t speak their language freely, the education system doesn’t cater for them – the Turkish state has many problems. It’s oppressing Turks as well as Kurds.

“And Jeremy caught onto that before many people, before it became a popular cause. That’s what politicians should be there for.”

The mural at the North Nineteen pub

While Mr Corbyn has been sanctioned by Mr Starmer, it is noticeable that none of this has stopped community organisations inviting him to events and, politically, he was still on the stage of the local Labour Party’s council election manifesto launch.

Colin Adams, the director of Brickworks Community Centre in Crouch Hill, said: “Jeremy volunteered at most of the food banks across the borough during Covid. He volunteered here every Tuesday packing bags for the food bank.

“He’s physically come in and done work at the food bank, not just come in and taken pictures.”

He added: “The greatest thing about Jeremy, if he says he’s going to come, he will turn up. That means he’s so bloody late because he’s going to everything, but he’s great. He’s well respected and admired locally.”

Supporters in Islington North want Mr Corbyn to be the Labour candidate at the next general election

Mr Corbyn has strong political allies in the borough.

Bunhill councillor Phil Graham said: “The fact that after 40 years the Labour Party have decided not to allow him to stand is a disgrace. He should be allowed to continue as long as he wants, because he’s wanted and he’s needed in Islington North.”

Ken Muller, a retired teacher and National Education Union press officer, has many fond memories of Mr Corbyn on picket lines and at protests.

“He’s part of a local community,” he said. “You’ll be sitting in a local greasy spoon cafe and Jeremy will walk in, having got off his bike to have his breakfast and say hello.

“My first memories of Jeremy are before I was a teacher back in 1977, when I went to an anti-National Front demonstration. He was a key organiser of the protest.”

Mr Corbyn will be celebrating with friends and supporters over the weekend.