The only thing standing between Jeremy Corbyn & number 10 now is the next PLP plot

The glass door opened onto a fusion of multi-coloured faces. If it wasn’t for the school girls, still in uniform, I could’ve been at a UN convention – not Momentum HQ.

Jeremy Corbyn renewed and strengthened his leadership mandate today – in spite of the McCarthyite tactics employed against him by the New Labour elite. He won because he has a vision and ideas that speak to people throughout the country. His appeal spans ethnicity, class, age and religion. When I visited Momentum on Tuesday, the people I met didn’t fit the media’s reductionist stereotype.

There was a middle aged Jewish woman who organises cake sale fundraisers, a grandmother who knits for Christian aid, the 70 year old Muslim man who left Labour when Blair “took it to the right” but returned when Jeremy Corbyn became leader. I met a white working class lad who listens to Nick Ferrari (to understand right wing views) and a couple of black school girls, to name a few. None of them fitted the description of “rabble”, “groupie” or “hard” anything. They were kind, welcoming and open (in spite of the previous night’s Dispatches stitch up) but above all – they were organised. Confident of winning the leadership election, they had already moved onto their next campaign: JC4PM.

When Jeremy Corbyn arrived to thank volunteers for their work, no one fainted at his feet. There were no selfies. These are measured, discerning individuals who are signing up to a vision of hope – not a cult of personality. Having spent 6 months undercover with Momentum in a “sting” that exposed that there was nothing to expose, I couldn’t help wondering why Dispatches hadn’t chosen to investigate the movement behind Owen Smith’s campaign.

The right wing Labour movement, progress, who the GMB accused of instructing Labour’s front bench to support Tory cuts and wage restraint in 2012, backed Smith. Large sums of money have been donated to Progress by corporations such as Pfizer, for whom Smith worked as a lobbyist.

Save Labour, which instigated a major recruitment drive for Smith supporters (though this wasn’t called “entryism”) was bankrolled by former Blair spin doctors, according to the electoral commission. Donations were made via a company founded by Blair loyalist, David Blunkett, called Labour Tomorrow Ltd. Donors include Blair’s former spin doctor, Peter Mandelson, and a hedge fund manager. The company has reportedly given Save Labour £117,000.

I was dismayed when JK Rowling endorsed the Save Labour campaign to back Owen Smith. Her defence of New Labour’s record on single parents seemed incongruous. She is a woman I admire greatly and I read Harry Potter to my son every night, but her hostility towards Jeremy Corbyn is misplaced. One of the first things Tony Blair did when he became PM was to cut benefits to single mothers. Jeremy Corbyn defied Blair and voted against cuts to lone parents.

Under New Labour, inequality almost doubled reaching levels not seen since the 1920s.  Decades of market-based capitalism has left the UK one of the most unequal countries in the OECD. It was Tony Blair’s de-regulation of financial services that precipitated the recession, which left the richest, 64% richer and the poorest 56% poorer. Privatisation of the NHS and education was also promoted during the Blair years (which Smith has previously said he’s comfortable with).

Despite Labour HQ trawling through members’ social media accounts and purging 130,000 individuals on specious grounds (such as tweeting comments on the Tory leadership election), Jeremy Corbyn emerged victorious today. He has made the Labour party relevant to ordinary people and inspired an unprecedented surge in membership. With 600,000 members, Labour is now the biggest left of centre party in Europe.

The only thing standing between Jeremy Corbyn and number 10 now is the PLP plotters who have serially undermined him. If BP executives resigned en masse and sought to topple the CEO with a smear campaign (damaging the company brand in the process) they wouldn’t expect their old job back when their treachery backfired. The pugilistic plotters will need to earn back, not just Jeremy Corbyn’s trust, but that of battle weary Labour members and supporters.