Standing ovation for man they said must stand down

Yesterday afternoon I was privileged to witness a piece of parliamentary history: a milestone few of us expected to see in our lifetimes.

Labour MPS cheered Jeremy Corbyn.

And when I say Labour MPS, I don’t just mean John Mcdonnell, Diane Abbott and the other members of his little band of loyalists. I mean all of them. As Mr Corbyn entered the Commons for the first time since the election, his MPS rose as one and awarded their leader a delirious standing ovation. Yes, the same MPS (well, apart from the 47 new ones) who not so long ago sat in scowling silence while Mr Corbyn floundered at PMQS, and voted by four to one that he must stand down.

On and on they clapped and whooped. Beaming from ear to ear, Mr Corbyn waved, shook hands, did the thumbs-up, and basked in the acclaim. On the opposite side of the House, Tory MPS, including Theresa May, stared glumly. If this is how Labour celebrate losing an election, imagine what they’d do if they won.

The new parliament won’t formally begin until the Prime Minister has worked out what polices, if any, she can include in the Queen’s Speech. Instead, the Commons was meeting to elect, or, rather, re-elect the Speaker. John Bercow, who has been in the chair since 2009, was the House’s unanimous choice. The Prime Minister rose. “Mr Speaker Elect, may I congratulate you on your re-election,” she said. “At least someone got a landslide.”

The laughter sounded reasonably good-natured.

Mrs May then gave a speech in which she spoke of her desire to foster “a spirit of national unity”, and acknowledged that her opponents want “a Britain that is stronger, fairer and safer” just as much as she does. It was decent, inclusive, and even selfdeprecating, a side of her I don’t recall seeing during a hubristic election campaign.

Now it was Mr Corbyn’s turn. He could have noted Mrs May’s tone, and shown magnanimity. He did not. First, he denounced the Conservative party as “anti-worker, anti-disabled people, anti-pensioner and anti-young person”. With uncharacteristic smugness, he observed: “Democracy is a wondrous thing. It can throw up some unexpected results.” Finally, after taunting Mrs May for her efforts to form “a coalition of chaos”, and promising if she failed he could offer “strong and stable leadership”, he said he was “looking forward to this parliament, however short it might be”.

Someone, it seems, has acquired a taste for applause. It sounded as if he was picturing the adulation when he swaggers into the Commons for the parliament after this one.

He would not be the first leader to assume victory is in the bag. Perhaps Mrs May could remind him.