Although the mood in the leader’s office is not one of elation, it’s fair to say that minds are more focussed on securing a successful conference following Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election than updating their LinkedIns in the event of a shock victory for Owen Smith.
Within Team Corbyn, the feeling is that they are well-placed to enjoy a better start to Corbyn’s second spell at the top than his first. Although a series of polls of the race made Corbyn the favourite to win, with even the bookmakers belatedly catching up to the Corbyn phenomenon by the last days, the Corbyn operation was still poorly-prepared for victory. Most of the campaign had taken leave from their jobs or were on secondment from sympathetic trade unions, leaving the newly-elected Labour leader with a barebones staff in which Simon Fletcher, the campaign manager, was acting as chief-of-staff, head of rebuttal, and roving press officer.
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