JEREMY CORBYN’S Haringey years have led to lasting respect in the area.

I last saw Corbyn in person just before the first lockdown in early March 2020 when he delivered the 20th anniversary Bernie Grant lecture at the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham.

His speech that day ranged across issues from anti-racism, the history of slavery and the rise of Black Sections in the Labour Party.

David Lammy, who has now distanced himself from his earlier decision to nominate Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2015, was also there and spoke.

It’s true, as Lammy says, that no-one — including Corbyn himself, I suspect — expected him to become Labour leader. But that is another matter.

Corbyn has always been up front about his politics and his staunch anti-racism. We were both young men with beards in the north London labour movement in the 1970s (and we still are, except not young), even if we had diverging views on the best way to achieve socialist advance.

Corbyn played a key role in the “Battle of Wood Green” on April 23 1977, one of the landmark battles which grappled with the rise of the fascist National Front, eventually successfully.

On that Saturday afternoon the fascists planned to march down a bustling multi-racial shopping street with the aim of stirring up division and hate.

Corbyn was the organiser of the counter-demonstration. He made sure that councillors of all parties were on board and managed to unite those who wanted a peaceful protest and those who wanted to confront the fascists as well.

The local Hornsey Journal paper had the following quote from him: “From Haringey Councillor Corbyn on behalf of the organisers of the counter-demonstrations ‘Why did the police allow the National Front to march through the busiest shopping area of north London, an area populated by several of London’s largest immigrant communities?

“It must be clear from Saturday’s demonstration that there is the widest possible opposition to these modern-day fascists. How much longer must it be before fascism is banned from our streets?’”

This is a matter of historical record and not something — however hard Lammy may try — that can be “distanced from.”

The National Front march itself was broken by anti-fascist protesters as it entered Wood Green High Road and fascists have never again dared to have a public presence in the area.

Since that time Corbyn has continued to be an anti-racist activist. He moved from Haringey to become the long-serving MP for the neighbouring area of Islington North and is still often seen in Tottenham. Like his former friend and political ally the late Tottenham MP Bernie Grant, he remains a popular political figure.

Many still remember his Haringey years. It is a matter of history of which many who were around at that time and others who have learnt about the anti-racist work done then remain proud.

Some politicians, as they progress through their careers, prefer to play down or rewrite their past.

By contrast Corbyn is always prepared to remember what he did on that April day in 1977. He was the keynote speaker at the 40th anniversary event of the Battle of Wood Green in 2017 even as he was busy fighting the general election campaign of that year as Labour leader.

He remains a frequent speaker and attendee at Stand Up to Racism events, someone who can be relied on for support.

While Lammy, a shadow minister in Keir Starmer’s team, clearly has a different political agenda to that of Corbyn these days, criticising his previous record and in doing so, attempting to rewrite history, is poor stuff.

Keith Flett is a socialist historian.