Alexei Sayle: Jeremy Corbyn trapped me in a cupboard

He tried to talk to me, and I was like 'yeah, whatever\

comedy

Alexei Sayle has revealed he was once stuck in a cupboard with Jeremy Corbyn.

The comedian admitted he was rather nonplussed by the Islington MP before he became Labour leader, and never really cared to talk to him.

But he regretted not realising what a pivotal figure in the Labour movement he would become.

Speaking at the Alternative Comedy Now conference at the University of Kent, Sayle – who describes himself as a Marxist – said: ‘I knew Jeremy Corbyn for years because we were both patrons of the Palestinian Solitary Campaign

‘He used to try to talk to me and I was like, "Fuck off Jeremy, whatever".

‘I would give anything to have those minutes back again. I didn’t see. I didn’t understand who he was, that this man, this luminous saintly man was trying to talk to me and I was like, "Yeah, yeah whatever…"

‘What a fool I was! I would give anything to have those moments back.

‘I was in a cupboard with him! And I was still like "Yeah, whatever" He was showing me round the House Of Commons once and we were in this cupboard. He shows everybody the cupboard where the suffragette locked herself during the census

‘Now to be in a cupboard with Jeremy Corbyn… can you imagine what that would be like! "Wow could you tell me more!"’

In 1991 Corbyn and Tony Benn crept into the Commons with a drill to put up a plaque in the broom cupboard where suffragette Emily Davison famously hid on census night in 1911 so that she could record the palace of Westminster as her place of residence. She would die two years later after throwing herself in front of the King's horse at the Epsom derby.

Sayle said that Corybn becoming leader of Labour marked a welcome ‘sea change’ in the politics of the left.

He said: ‘The Labour Party is still very problematic.. but if you could have genuinely democratic socialist party. then that is going to be fucking amazing. I am enthused! Not so enthused I would join the Labour Party, though. I wouldn’t do that.’

Sayle also spoke about how he was treated differently when he became a writer, saying: ‘When you’re a comic you’re treated as being more stupid than you were but when you become an author you’re treated as more important than you were. I loved that!’

But most of his session was dedicated to his comedy career, especially his place at the vanguard of the alternative comedy revolution of 1979.

alternative comedy now