The Labour leader’s youngest son, Tommy Corbyn, and girlfriend-slash-business-partner Chloe Kerslake-Smith announced their upcoming hemp shop and cafe back in August. The venture was originally set to open in September. However, the store never opened, and the business instead seems to be going into liquidation.
It seems that the National Hemp Service was marked to go into liquidation in mid-November. But, to make things even more confusing, the venture continues to be active on social media. Just last week, both Corbyn and Kerslake-Smith held a charity drop-off at the Islington property. The event encouraged people to donate sanitary products for distribution to homeless people.
Although the situation seems complicated, Jeff Ditchfield has announced his disappointment in the seemingly-failed venture. Ditchfield is a long-standing Cannabis advocate who apparently invested £30,000 in the business earlier this year.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Ditchfield stated:
“My presonal view is that [the business has] been put into liquidation because of mismanagement by the directors.”
Earlier this year, the National Hemp Service, run by Corbyn and Kerslake-Smith was ear-marked to be the first all-hemp store in the UK. The business was supposed to sell a whole range of products that were made from the Cannabis plant, including clothing, household objects, and skincare products.
In an interview with the Islington Tribune in August, Corbyn said:
“We’re only working with ethical brands, most of which are independent UK start-ups and small businesses.”
Despite the evidence that the business has gone into liquidation, it seems that the founders still have hopes for their venture. When visited by the Daily Mail for comment, co-founder Kerslake-Smith allegedly claimed that there were exciting things to come.
According to the Daily Mail article, Kerslake Smith said:
“I’m not talking about [the liquidation] today. If you’re really interested, come back in a few weeks – we’ve got interesting stuff happening.”
I suppose we will have to wait a little longer to find out what has really been going on with the National Hemp Service.
