The Balls Pond Road Burial Ground

• I TAKE issue with Doreen Berger’s assertion that Jeremy Corbyn played no part in the campaign to save the Jewish graveyard from planning permission granted to developers by Islington Council, led from 1982 until 1992 by Margaret Hodge, (Saving the cemetery – the history, November 27).

First, an article by the distinguished Jewish historian, Professor Geoffrey Alderman in The Spectator (May 8 2019) states: “The fact of the matter is that Corbyn has an impressive record of supporting Jewish communal initiatives.”

Included in the record he lists is Corbyn’s participation in the graveyard campaign. Professor Alderman confirms: “…when Islington Council granted the planning application, a Jewish-led and ultimately successful campaign was launched to have the decision reversed. I was part of that campaign. So was Jeremy Corbyn”.

Further corroboration of Corbyn’s involvement is supplied by a report in the Evening Standard of May 19 1995, at the time when the West London Synagogue made a fresh application for planning permission and the graves needed to be removed.

The article recounts that: “Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn has raised the exhumation issue with home secretary, Michael Howard.”

As an MP Jeremy Corbyn could not intervene legally with the council’s decision-making process, but it is without doubt that he did what he could to help the Jewish campaigners.

JENNY KASSMAN
Address supplied