Corbyn still has a mountain to climb

LABOUR supporters who have converged on Brighton are in a festival mood. This does not feel like a party which lost an election in June in a country that may not go to the polls again until 2022. The delegates are not here to conduct a post-mortem but to celebrate and prepare for an almighty push for power.

Labour is excited by what did not happen in June.

The party defied critics, experts and pundits who predicted electoral catastrophe and was not wiped out. Labour gained MPs and is now – at least numerically – a stronger force in parliament.

For Corbyn supporters, these are exhilarating days. They kept the faith in the face of internal and external opposition, and now they believe they have a chance to change Britain and the world.

They may not have ministers in Whitehall but Theresa May’s Government was stripped of her majority. Going into the general election, commentators had debated the size of the majority the Conservative leader would enjoy; as it turned out, the surprise majority won by David Cameron in 2015 vaporised.

Activists far from the Labour heartlands talk with excitement of membership surging at local branches. Mr Corbyn, a left-winger who was known as a serial rebel during the heyday of New Labour, now has, his supporters hope, a shot at becoming Prime Minister.

An extra fizz of excitement for Corbynistas comes from the knowledge that their power within Labour has never been greater.

Rule changes should extend the influence of the leader’s grassroots supporters and last year’s leadership challenge seems like a distant memory.

Mr Corbyn has scarcely stopped campaigning since June. His fans would relish a snap election.

Meanwhile, frontbenchers are working to come up with policies that will strike a nerve with the electorate. The promise to scrap tuition won the attention of young voters and this week they are putting forward proposals to limit the amount of personal debt you can accumulate.

Activists sense everything is now there to play for. In June the party won 40% of the vote, just behind the Conservatives on 42.4%; if Ukip and the Lib Dems fail to recover there is the chance that Labour under Mr Corbyn could win the most votes and emerge as the larger of the two parties.

Cooler heads point out that for Labour to win 326 of the 650 seats in the country the party needs to win 64 more seats. If the party does not enjoy a full-scale revival in Scotland this is a profoundly difficult challenge.

There is also the potential for profound divisions between MPs and the leadership over Brexit and a number of significant issues. Ideological rifts could also open further among the party grassroots.

Mr Corbyn has proven himself a formidable campaigner but for the coveted keys of Downing St to be within his grasp he must show he can be a figure of unity who can also appeal far beyond his very excited base. The Western Mail newspaper is published by Media Wales a subsidiary company of Trinity Mirror PLC, which is a member of IPSO, the Independent Press Standards Organisation. The entire contents of The Western Mail are the copyright of Media Wales Ltd. It is an offence to copy any of its contents in any way without the company’s permission. If you require a licence to copy parts of it in any way or form, write to the Head of Finance at Six Park Street. The recycled paper content of UK newspapers in 2016 was 62.8%