The Fact Corbyn Became Vegetarian After Seeing Cruelty On A Pig Farm Is Going Viral

    "I got attached to the pigs," the Labour leader said.

    Siraj Datoo
    by Siraj Datoo

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

    Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn became a vegetarian more than 40 years ago after he worked on a pig farm.

    Ben Pruchnie / Getty Images

    He "became attached to the pigs" while working on the farm as a 20-year-old and stopped eating meat.

    Last night, this tweet from last week by Glenn Greenwald, a journalist at The Intercept, went viral.

    Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald

    Corbyn became a vegetarian & animal rights activist at 20 after seeing the extreme cruelty on pig farm he worked at http://t.co/0iAkPdZaxz

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    People seized upon the tweet after the Daily Mail serialised a book by former Tory party deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft which includes a claim that David Cameron "inserted a private part of his anatomy" into a dead pig's mouth when he was a student.

    Corbyn was also an animal rights activist and joined the League Against Cruel Sports when he was at school, according to the BBC.