Labour party

No one in the hall was in any doubt about the result, the only thing in question was the scale of Jeremy Corbyn’s victory. In the end it was overwhelming, 59.5 per cent on the first round. Corbyn led in every single section and the scale of his triumph will make it very hard for the Parliamentary Labour Party to move against him even in the medium term. Though, large numbers of the Labour figures here today are making no effort to hide their dismay at the result. Corbyn’s victory speech, delivered without a tie, was no move to the centre. It did contain some unifying themes, his tribute to Liz Kendall for standing up for what she believes in, but it was largely left-wing boiler plate.

A number of backroom staff in the Labour party have been in touch today to say goodbye ahead of an exodus of frontbenchers and staffers who disagree with Jeremy Corbyn. Most expect him to win the leadership contest, and know that their bosses won’t serve in his Shadow Cabinet, or suspect that they will struggle to last very long in an HQ under his leadership. The Sun reports a clear-out in the whips office. Corbyn himself has been very careful to talk about the party coming back together, and has denied that he will bring back mandatory reselection of Labour MPs: something the Left deployed in the 1980s to threaten and remove those on the right of the party. But he doesn’t need to introduce any official reselection: this will happen anyway.

Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of experience in office makes it hard to predict how he will act as Labour leader. His tens of thousands of supporters are crowing that a new political age will begin on Saturday and are looking forward to a shadow cabinet made of like-minded folk from the hard-left — Diane Abbott, Michael Meacher etc. But the signs so far suggest that Corbyn as Labour leader will operate differently to Corbyn to march leader. Today’s Guardian offers an explanation why. The list of shadow cabinet ministers who would refuse to serve under Corbyn is growing, along with a unease among Labour MPs about a split between its Parliamentary party and grassroots.

If the bookmakers and pollsters are to be believed, there is little doubt that Jeremy Corbyn will be crowned Labour leader on Saturday. Westminster is therefore wondering: what happens next? I’ve written a piece for POLITICO Europe today looking at the personal and policy battles ahead if Corbyn is the new opposition leader. Instead of treating him as a joke, it seems the Tories would take Corbyn seriously and use the bucketloads of research they have built up over the summer to undermine and destroy him. While Conservative HQ and Downing Street are not revealing too much about their plans if Corbyn wins, insiders suggest that their core message of 'Labour hasn't changed' would be continued.

I break off the family holiday to campaign for my colleague Liz Kendall in the Labour leadership election. In Ipswich and Colchester, I found party members not so smitten by Corbynmania. In both constituencies, more people voted Tory than Labour: it remains unclear to me why heading further left would appeal to them. At every leadership election since the demise of Tony Blair the party has chosen a more left-wing candidate, and while Neil Kinnock might have ‘got his party back’, the country got a Tory government back. What is also evident is the anger among party members who have spent years delivering leaflets and are being called ‘Tories’ for not supporting Corbyn by people who joined the party weeks ago.