Jeremy Corbyn has told of the ‘horrifying’ moment he had to fly across the world to pick up the body of his older brother.
The Labour leader spoke of his family background and most difficult times in a revealing interview to be screened on TV tonight.
Mr Corbyn, the youngest of four brothers who grew up in a rural manor in Shropshire, told how he was sent to Papua New Guinea after his geologist brother Andrew died due to high blood pressure in 2001.
Jeremy Corbyn has given a TV interview in which he tells of his family and toughest times
Mr Corbyn was the youngest of four boys born to parents David and Naomi. He is pictured (centre right) with his parents and three brothers Edward, Andrew and Piers in his youth
The Islington MP said in the interview: ‘It was a brain haemorrhage, which was very sad. I just remember the sort of devastation of it.
‘I went to Papua New Guinea to basically pick up his body and take it to his wife and children in Australia, where they were living. It was one of the most horrifying and horrific things to do.’
Mr Corbyn revealed how he felt a bit of a failure compared to his three older brothers, admitting they ‘all got good, university qualifications but I didn’t’.
His eldest brother, Edward, became a test engineer on Concorde, while Andrew also studied science and became a geologist. Piers, Mr Corbyn’s other brother, is a meteorologist now best-known for his cynicism about climate change.
‘They all went off to be engineers or scientists and I fell by the wayside,’ he said in the interview to be screened on TV channel W tonight.
Mr Corbyn’s father, David, was an electrical engineer and his mother Naomi a scientist and teacher.
Rather than follow his brothers to university, he volunteered in Jamaica after leaving school
They were committed socialists who met at a Spanish Civil War committee. They both supported the Republican side.
‘My mum and dad were both very principled people on peace and justice issues,’ he added. ‘They were people of great principles. So, yeah, I got a lot from that.’
He added: ‘They both were still alive when I was first elected to Parliament, so they were very pleased about that.’
The interview is not all personal, with Corbyn giving his views on the Iraq war and the Chilcott inquiry, anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and the IRA.
Mr Corbyn, now 68, grew up in Yew Tree Manor, a seven-bedroom property with two acres of land in the countryside, near Newport.
Mr Corbyn said he thinks his parents would be proud of his current role as Labour leader
Before his family moved to Shropshire, young Jeremy spent his first five years in a five-bedroom detached house in the village of Kington St Michael in Wiltshire.
His brother Piers once said they were ‘country bumpkins’.
He said: ‘When I first came to London in the Sixties I didn’t understand how lifts worked. I would have thought Jeremy would have had similar problems.’
John Bishop: In Conversation With Jeremy Corbyn, tonight at 9pm on W.