Tories and lead Labour to pow er IN DAYS
Champion hailed as homecoming hero
constituency,” said Mr Corbyn. “I feel guilty not being here the last six weeks. “But the party have been very kind. “They said if it works this well when you’re not here don’t bother turning up – just send us a photo in future.”
The 68-year-old is still recovering from Thursday’s result. By my calculations, on Thursday and Friday he slept for about 90 minutes. Tops.
After door-knocking in the morning, he invited people round to his to watch the results come in.
“My team all came to my house, which is unusual because I don’t use my house like an extension of my office.
“I gave them all a blank sheet of paper. They had to write their name on one side, then on the other predict what our share of the vote would be.
“Karie Murphy got it right. I came second. She won a glass of fizzy apple juice. Mine’s a pretty abstemious house.
“We got food in from a local Turkish restaurant and all stayed up to watch the results. The exit poll framed everything straight away. But we were still unsure. coming together to support us. A lot of young people told me they were voting Labour but their family weren’t, so they were working on them.
“There must have been some very complicated discussions around the kitchen table in home after home, with young, enthusiastic people saying, ‘This is why we’ve got to do it’.”
Mr Corbyn covered thousands of miles across the country during his campaign. The Labour leader attended 90 rallies in 60 towns and cities.
He said: “The number of people who have been involved has been amazing. The enthusiasm was infectious and of course it infected me as well. It was great. The fundamental message I was putting forward is So we followed that very closely. Everyone was making calls.
“Everyone was enthusiastic, and pleased with how things unfolded.
“I wanted to get to my count much sooner, but we had to wait.
“When we got down there we had a great reception. We then went home for an hour and a half.
“Slept and then we were back out again. TV interviews.”
Mr Corbyn’s wife Laura has been on the road with him for much of the campaign. But the two haven’t had massive amounts of time together.
They managed to squeeze a quick meal in on Friday, when Mr Corbyn said: “We said to each other: ‘This could be the last supper we’ll get on our own’. Halloumi kebab. Very nice. I’m a non-drinking vegetarian so celebrations are pretty low-key.”
Mr Corbyn said: “On the way home we were walking past the Bedford Tavern. They said come on in it’s a party for you. But I was tired and wanted to go home.” Despite the lack of sleep and punishing schedule, you get the sense Mr Corbyn is happiest out campaigning. He said: “There’s been an amazing sense of coming together. The crowds and rallies all over the country. I did 90 and visited 60 towns and cities. My only regret was that some of the campaign stops were quite short.” Mr Corbyn now has a couple of days back at home and said he planned to spend the weekend catching up with things. “It was good to be home for a bit. Saturday lunchtime would be spent going to watch his son coach football in a local park. And after that? “I’m going to the allotment. Can’t wait.” At night? “I’ve lost track of EastEnders,” he said, “I’m going to have to do a big catch-up. I understand some bad things have been going on.” that we’re strong as a community. We didn’t have separate messages; one for the old, one for the young, one for the disabled.
“We had a message of hope. And that was for everyone. And that ideal is a basic human condition.”
Mr Corbyn added: “I’ve worked as hard as I can over the last seven weeks. I know we can do this.”
The Labour leader believes the response of young people has been key to his success. He said: “We’ve got to invest in the youth and the future of our nation.
“Austerity has dealt a bitter blow to their aspirations and that’s just wrong.
“For too long now, the rich have got ever richer whilst those struggling have had no hope of improving their lot. That’s just