Leader’s four-letter reaction to his shock election results

JEREMY Corbyn was so shocked by his successful showing in the General Election that he reacted with the F-word.

His aides were so pessimistic about his prospects that they drew up plans for him to step down – but in a way designed to kill off any chance that his foe, deputy leader Tom Watson, could take over.

Mr Corbyn would have announced he was quitting but carried on for months until a Left-wing successor was chosen.

Details of his stunned reaction to the 017 election are disclosed in a new book, The

017 General Election, by Philip Cowley and Dennis Kavanagh.

They say that Mr Corbyn feared he would be thrashed at the polls by Theresa May. In fact, Labour gained 30 seats and Mrs May lost her working majority.

The truth was exposed by his response on being told that an exit poll had forecast a hung Parliament.

The authors write: ‘There are claims that when the exit poll was announced, Corbyn took it all in his stride and simply carried on drinking his tea. The reality is different. For all his talk of Monsieur Zen on the campaign trail, Corbyn’s reaction was one single, un-Zen-like word.’ The authors do not Fearing the worst: Corbyn on election day spell out the expletive, but reliable sources have told the Mail it was ‘f***’.

The book also describes how Mr Corbyn and his inner circle went to great lengths to stop Mr Watson. The book notes: ‘The aim was to stop Watson taking office, even as an interim position. “We did not want Tom Watson becoming acting leader”, said one of Corbyn’s closest aides.’

The only person who forecast Mr Corbyn’s gains was his chief of staff Karie Murphy, who was so confident she had even chosen the dress she planned to wear when she joined him at Buckingham Palace to be asked by the Queen to be PM.