Jeremy Corbyn, an elderly man from North Islington has become the latest involuntary star of a viral video when his invective about foreign workers undercutting wages in Britain were caught on camera.
The disheveled man, who was addressing people in Dundee, is seen to intersperse oddball and complex socialist theory with paranoid ramblings about the EU destroying the British working class using cheap labour from abroad.
A friend of Mr Corbyn from the care group Momentum, Simon Williams, explained that it was unfair to judge the man by contemporary standards.
“Jeremy’s got a heart of gold. He doesn’t mean any harm by it. It’s just he’s from a generation that sees outsiders as invaders. On a one to one basis he’ll treat immigrants like brothers.
“It’s just he reads a lot of tabloids and he’s a got a thing for Northerners. If someone from Yorkshire says something bigoted, he’ll just nod along because he doesn’t like ruffling feathers. He’s an eccentric really. He went to Glasto you know. Loves Grime!”
Concerns about people associated with the Labour movement becoming bigoted in their old age have been raised before.
In 2016 Ken Livingstone, a prominent London based activist, was caught on camera mumbling bizarre ideas about Hitler being a Zionist. Many at the time put the comments down to stress following an investigation into his tax affairs.
Mr Williams was hesitant to comment on suspicions of antisemitism about Jeremy Corbyn or Ken Livingstone.
He said, “Look, they don’t understand how Facebook works. Just ignore their posts.”
“Do you know Jeremy met Stormzy?”