Jeremy Corbyn was allegedly snubbed by Nelson Mandela because he was considered a ‘hindrance’ to the anti-apartheid movement, it was reported last night.
The Labour MP was arrested in 1984 for picketing outside the South African embassy to protest the ANC leader’s imprisonment.
But attempts to gain Mr Mandela’s approval for the campaign were repeatedly refused because it was run by an hard-Left splinter group, The Daily Telegraph claimed.
Mr Corbyn was part of a four-year protest organised by the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group (CLAAG), which demanded Mr Mandela’s release from prison during the 1980s.
Nelson Mandela (left) allegedly snubbed a request from Jeremy Corbyn (right) to meet during a visit to London
When it was announced that the freedom fighter was to visit London in 1990, CLAAG asked if he would meet those involved in the campaign, according to a book on the subject.
Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-Stop Picket Against Apartheid, written by academics Gavin Brown and Helen Yaffe and published in February, said the meeting ‘never happened’ and many letters ‘received no acknowledgement or reply’.
‘These letters were part of a political campaign to gain Mandela’s (retrospective) approval for the non-stop picket in the face of long-standing opposition from sections of the London ANC,’ it said.
Last month The Guardian claimed that Mr Corbyn ‘served on the national executive of the AAM’.
But a senior figure in the anti-apartheid movement, who served on the AAM national executive, said: ‘Jeremy Corbyn was never on the national executive’.
The figure, who wished not to be named, told The Daily Telegraph: ‘His followers try to project him as the saviour of the cause but he was actually very disruptive in the AAM.
The London ANC reportedly opposed a non-stop picket (pictured, demonstrators in Trafalgar Square in 1985)
‘The dedicated people who took part in the 24/7 picket outside the South African embassy were mostly ultra-Left Trotskyists who caused constant aggravation and segregation within the movement.
‘Corbyn and John McDonnell went on these events – not the mainstream marches and demonstrations the AAM organised.
‘His supporters and Momentum tweet that he was this major figure in the AAM and that he practically released Mandela single-handedly.
‘The reality is that he was aligned to ultra-Leftists who were seeking to do their own thing and didn’t mind if it set back the anti-apartheid cause. They were more of a hindrance than a help.’
Mr Corbyn was instead a member of CLAAG, which was under observation inside the House of Commons during an AAM meeting because they were ‘a front for a violence-prone Trotskyist group known as the Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG)’, according to declassified Special Branch files.
A slate of 13 CLAAG members, including Mr Corbyn, stood for the AAM national executive in 1984 but were all defeated.
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: ‘While members of the Conservative Party were calling for Nelson Mandela to be hanged, Jeremy was campaigning against the racist apartheid regime.’