Jeremy Corbyn: Labour conference will be the biggest the party has ever held
The Labour leader has completed his summer 'marginal tour', where he spoke in 47 marginal constituencies
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Your support makes all the difference.Jeremy Corbyn has said the forthcoming party conference will be the “largest we have ever held”, as his summer “marginals tour” comes to an end. The Labour leader spoke at more than 50 events in 47 marginal constituencies, from the pyramid stage at Glastonbury to a history quiz for dementia sufferers.
But, after a tour designed to capitalise on Mr Corbyn’s growing popularity with the general public since the general election, he told the BBC’s World at One he would never appear on Strictly Come Dancing.
Mr Corbyn said he had ruled out "anything that involved dancing” adding that “the reason is: my dancing is terrible."
Tour organisers estimate that 500 people attended a rally in Iain Duncan Smith’s Chingford constituency in Essex, which after the 2017 election the former Conservative leader holds by just 2,500 votes, and 3,000 people came to a rally in Hastings in Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s constituency, which she won in June by just 346 votes.
Mr Corbyn visited nearly twenty seats in Scotland, where the party made six gains in the election, taking their overall number to seven, still far down from the forty one it won in 2010.
Mr Corbyn told The Independent: "We had a fantastic summer campaigning in marginals, many of which were safe Tory seats until June, hearing from people from Hastings to the Western Isles about their hope for a government that works for the many, not the few.
"Labour is now not just an opposition, but a government in waiting, ready to fight and win another general election."
Party membership has soared since Mr Corbyn became leader two years ago, especially with young people, via the Momentum campaign group which grew from the "Corbyn4Leader" campaign. Once seen as a rival to the party proper, the Momentum event at this year's party conference will be very much part of the mainstream, with Shadow cabinet ministers like John Ashworth and former Corbyn critics like Lisa Nandy scheduled to speak.
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