Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will return to Bristol... to show off his jam-making skills. He will speak at a left-wing political festival taking place in St Pauls next month before taking to the stage to show off his culinary skills.
The event - In the kitchen with Corbyn - is on June 17 and will involve a discussion on the right to food, its production and sustainability alongside a jam-making demonstration. Mr Corbyn is a keen gardener, known for spending his free time at his allotment and making his own jam with the fresh produce.
He shared his blackberry jam recipe on Instagram ahead of the Channel 4 British Bake Off launch in 2017. And in 2020 one of his signature jams sold at £400 in a charity auction. Next month he will bring his famous jam on stage at the Malcolm X centre in St Pauls.
READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn's reaction after Bristol dad shows him 'F*** Boris' necklace
Using a hot plate he will demonstrate his jam making on stage to the Bristol Transformed audience and share his top tips. Organisers at The Bristol Transformed festival, which was founded in 2019, contacted Mr Corbyn via The Peace and Justice Project, which the now-Independent MP founded in 2021.
Festival organiser Kieran Glasssmith said: “He is definitely the biggest name speaker that we’ve had. Almost everyone who is involved in organising the festival were brought together through Corbyn’s election as Labour leader.
“The plan is to get a hot plate and bring it on stage where he can do a demonstration of jam making. People know that he’s an allotment, jam making kind of guy and we’d thought it would be fun.
“I think most people who come to the festival are of the opinion that that country would be better if we’d brought the Labour Party to power while he was still leader. Bristol was definitely a hotbed for the Labour left in the years that he was in charge.
“It’s really exciting and it will be really fun. For me it shows how much the festival has grown since 2019 when we were all very inexperienced and now we’ve got Jeremy Corbyn coming down to do a jam making session.”
When Bristol Transformed announced Mr Corbyn was set to speak, they sold around a quarter of all their ticket sales on that day. The Bristol West constituency saw the biggest swing to Labour under Mr Corbyn’s leadership in 2017 and was one of the parts of the country that saw a huge surge in membership while he was leader of the party. The MP attracted large crowds of supporters when he came to the city in 2019 for a rally at College Green.
Bristol Transformed takes place from June 16-18 across the Malcolm X centre, PRSC, Docklands and Lost Horizons. The three-day political festival includes panel discussions, interactive workshops and arts events. You can find out more and book tickets here.
READ NEXT:
Speech in full: What Jeremy Corbyn had to say when he visited Bristol
Trees chopped down at mobile home site despite preservation order being in place
Anti-royalist graffiti appears on Bristol zebra crossing by primary school
Meet the UK battle rap champion who was inspired by Jeremy Corbyn
This is what Jeremy Corbyn has said about Colston and the renaming in Bristol
Bristol local food plan aims to cut obesity and tackle climate change
