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An Islington councillor gave a rallying speech in support of Labour leadership hopeful Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday, saying he will provide solutions to the country’s housing crisis.

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church was packed to the rafters, with 800 people queuing up for a talk on Mr Corbyn’s leadership bid and Hackney MP Diane Abbott’s attempt to become the party’s mayoral candidate.

Councillor Claudia Webbe told the youthful audience: “We have bankers trading commodities alongside some of the most deprived communities in the country. People living in these high-rise blocks in my ward [Bunhill], for them the economy of Britain simply does not work. We need change for the people across the country who are trapped.”

Of Bunhill, she said: “It borders the City, but it might as well be at the other end of the world.”

Cllr Webbe said Mr Corbyn would be a Prime Minister who would devolve power to communities and give councils “the funding we need”. She added: “To win in 2020 the Labour Party must stick up for the people we were created to represent. We must never be ashamed to stand up for those marginalised in society.”

Mr Corbyn, who was two hours late after speaking in Luton the same evening, said his surging campaign was part of “a very special time in British politics”.

Speaking out against the “grotesque levels of inequality in Britain”, the veteran MP said London had become a city where investors buy up luxury properties only to leave them deliberately empty, while “thousands of people bed down on a cardboard box”.

He added: “We have lit a spark that is not going to go away. We are on a march to achieve social justice and be a force for the promotion of peace and good all over the world.”

Mr Corbyn was mobbed by young people as he left the church. Asked why he thought so many young people were inspired by his message, he said: “I don’t know the reason, but I support young people and I am inspired by them, and I try to understand them.”