An Islington MP paid tribute to controversial Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who died on Tuesday after a two-year struggle against cancer.

Jeremy Corbyn, MP for Islington North and a member of the Labour Party’s Socialist Campaign Group, was a long-term supporter of the Venezuelan leader, whose struggles against “Western imperialism” have long been documented.

Livingstone was criticised for his close relationship with the Venezuelan leader.

In October 2012, Corbyn and Hackney MP Diane Abbott, along with Grahame Morris, Owen Jones, and ex-Labour MP Colin Burgon, all flew to Venezuela to monitor the country’s presidential elections.

In his post on popular left-wing blog Labourlist entitled ‘Thank you Mr Chavez”, Corbyn praised the late president because he stood up to the Bush administration and “forged alliances to try to bring about a different narrative in world politics”.

Chavez was often described as a dictator but Corbyn rejected this claim: “It is a strange dictator that has a mass media in Venezuela in permanent opposition to him, a wealthy elite who regularly condemned him and a new constitution and independent judicial system.”