WHEN Jeremy Corbyn came to Swindon, he was the obscure backbencher he would remain until entering the Labour leadership race.

It was the end of January, 2003, less than two months before coalition forces would invade Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

The Islington MP spoke to a 200-strong audience at the Pilgrim Centre in Regent Circus, urging them to join a peace demonstration in Hyde Park on February 15.

Politicians in favour of invasion, notably US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, insisted Saddam had access to weapons of mass destruction and had to be toppled.

Both of Swindon’s Labour MPs, Julia Drown and Michael Wills, would vote in favour of military action.

Mr Corbyn told his audience at the Pilgrim Centre: “I am appalled at the way Tony Blair has said he is standing shoulder to shoulder with the United States and that there is a blood price to pay for the relationship.

“I find it disgusting that there is no money for firefighters, for pensioners or for students but apparently there is money for war.

“The racism that grew after September 11 is disgusting.”

Mr Corbyn had taken the place of George Galloway, then still a Labour MP, who had cancelled his Swindon appearance in favour of an appearance on the BBC’s Question Time.

The future Labour leader received a standing ovation and a warm welcome was also given to Ahmed Al-Sudane, an Iraqi who had lived in Swindon for 15 years.

He told the audience his loved ones were dying slow deaths because of poverty in Iraq, which had been the subject of international trade sanctions for several years.

Mr Al-Sudane added: “My sister said she wished she had the war now rather than dying slowly.”

Another speaker was Church of England vicar and veteran peace activist the Rev Sidney Hinkes, who insisted that Iraq, rather than Britain or America, was a nation under threat.

The peace protest Mr Corbyn urged people to attend became one of the biggest of its kind, with the BBC estimating at least a million people were present.