‘I don’t like corporate boxes’: Jeremy and Ben Corbyn on Arsenal, coaching and Starmer

Jeremy Corbyn and his son Ben on the playing fields at Tufnell Park. ‘He shows football at its best,’ Jeremy says. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer

Last Saturday morning, with the biting cold and bright sunshine providing a perfect day for football, Jeremy Corbyn climbed off his bicycle at Tufnell Park playing fields. I joked about a red bike being appropriate for his politics and his beloved Arsenal but Corbyn just smiled and gazed at the teeming pitches.

His eldest son, Ben, is a scout for the Arsenal academy and runs the London Football School which coaches around a thousand young footballers. They range in age from three to 18 and there are 42 LFS teams.