Analysis: how the hairy Leftie went from rank outsider to odds-on favourite and what it means for Scotland

His crumpled, anti-machine politician appeal shows no sign of fading as decision day on September 12 draws near.

With New Labour grandee after New Labour grandee emerging to warn party members directly, or indirectly, not to throw themselves over the political cliff-edge by choosing the “loony left-winger”, he smiled at the suggestion that his opponents were beginning to panic and snipe at one another.

“Well, it’s an interesting time,” he declared, lingering over the word ‘interesting’.

“I entered this contest to put forward a different political strategy. I absolutely refuse to engage in any personal sniping and I haven’t done so,” he explained, noting: “Others have done plenty of that.”

Fresh from his Scottish adventure - the reception at four rallies, he insisted, was “absolutely terrific” and there are more to come - it was noticeable that when asked about independence, Mr Corbyn’s replies were somewhat, well, vague.

So, the question was put: would he describe himself as a Unionist?

“No. I would describe myself as a Socialist,” he declared.

So did he not believe in the United Kingdom? “I would prefer the UK to stay together, yes. But I recognise the right of people to take the decision on their own autonomy and independence.”

The MP for Islington North since 1983 explained he had a problem with the word ‘Unionist’ because the Tories regarded themselves as the Conservative and Unionist Party.

But I was beginning to get the impression that his allegiance to the UK was not based on a mix of passionate emotions and political arguments like, say, Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown or David Cameron, but on a more cool, intellectual approach.

He stressed what was needed was a Socialist proposition that “would excite Scottish people, who have suffered from austerity, suffered from health inequality, suffered bad housing; the Union of itself doesn’t guarantee an end to those things, only a radical political programme guarantees those things”.

Linking up with the Conservatives during the referendum had been a “huge mistake”, argued Mr Corbyn. “The most telling moment in the campaign was when Cameron said something like - Alistair Darling is speaking on this tonight.

“So you have a Tory government imposing cuts and austerity all over the UK, including Scotland, and the Conservative Government is letting Labour front up the campaign and saying nothing itself. A lot of people in Scotland, particularly Labour voters, were not impressed with the close relationship with the Tories during that referendum and we’re paying a price for it.”

During the 2014 campaign, one of the most high-profile moments came when Ed Miliband ordered a battalion of 100 or so English Labour MPs to troop north of the border to help their Scottish comrades save the Union. But the Islington North MP admitted he was not one of them; indeed he did not go to Scotland once during the entire campaign.

Why on earth not, I asked? “Mainly because I was doing stuff here and I also thought it was a decision the Scottish people should make. I didn’t anyway.”

When pressed why he could not bring himself to campaign alongside his colleagues to save the 300-year-old Union, something he apparently believed in, Mr Corbyn, for the one and only time, appeared tetchy, saying: “Well, I didn’t; okay?”

Given Nicola Sturgeon appears poised before 2020 to pull the trigger on another referendum, I asked how Labour, which led the defence of the Union last year, could possibly repeat the exercise, if it was still on its back politically?

Mr Corbyn did not hesitate, saying: “By offering an alternative economic strategy, which does address the levels of poverty and inequality.”

Stressing the inequalities in health and housing across cities like London, Manchester and Glasgow, he said: “If you’re poor and in a bad place, you’re poor and in a bad place.

“Labour can play a huge role in uniting people on the basis of a radical economic strategy and that’s why all of our campaign has essentially been around challenging the political agenda of austerity and it’s chiming with a lot of young people, particularly with young, working class communities in Scotland.”

The left-winger talked up his idea of creating a national investment bank, “utterly normal in most parts of Europe, especially in Germany and Italy” but regarded by his opponents as extreme leftwingery, he said.

“I’m saying the £325bn loan in terms of quantitative easing from the central bank, some of that should be used to fund a national investment bank to deal with the housing and other crises; because the alternative is a private finance initiative, which is incredibly expensive. It’s not that extreme what we are saying.”

He insisted his 10-point plan, he unveiled in Glasgow last week - renationalise the railways, deprivatise the NHS, scrap Trident - had been co-written by some “very creditable people” and noted how eminent economists like Joseph Stieglitz and Paul Krugman had expressed interest in his anti-austerity programme.

“So it’s not as if it’s a kind of isolated document from some strange place; this is something that’s quite central to a lot of economic thinking,” he said.

Our conversation wandered over his plan for Britain to leave Nato(it would “not necessarily” end the UK-US Special Relationship, he insisted), his desire for a national maximum wage(the level of inequality between rich and poor was storing up massive problems), his determination to speak about his opposition to Trident at the Scottish Labour conference, if he won or lost the leadership contest, and his desire to co-operate with the Nationalists on certain issues at Westminster(voters would not forgive either party if they engaged in a “turf war” instead of opposing the Tories’ welfare reforms).

Denounced by Labour colleagues as a Michael Foot figure, who is peddling old solutions to old problems, Mr Corbyn denied he was a divisive figure within his party.

“There are a number of people saying a great deal in the Parliamentary Labour Party but there are also around 180 who are saying absolutely nothing and I’m having perfectly friendly conversations with a large number of Labour MPs, who don’t necessarily agree with everything I’m saying, didn’t nominate, but are saying, well, your views are getting a lot of support. So I’d caution you about overplaying the siren voices.”

The London MP claimed the SNP was not as left-wing as it liked to portray. “I find them interesting from a political science point of view because like all national parties, it...has to encompass a huge range of political opinion.

“So you have the older pro-free enterprise, business end of things and now you have quite a lot of former Labour people in the SNP; I just wonder if they haven’t got a few tense days ahead.”

He expressed confidence that what he termed a radical political programme could not only win switchers to the SNP back to Labour in Scotland but also woo the well-off Middle Englanders who voted Tory in May.

Bouyed by a figure in excess of 600,000 taking part in the leadership contest, the backbencher declared: “Where’s the attraction of voting Labour if you’re unemployed, short-term working, on zero hours contracts, and having great difficulty in getting a home for yourself or your children?

“Where’s the attraction in voting Labour if all you’re going to say is well, there’s going to be more of the same. What we’re saying is invest in a growing economy in order to build the houses and infrastructure that’s necessary.”

But what about Middle England, where most of the votes are that will win the next General Election, I asked?

“I know. I know. I grew up in rural Shropshire; you don’t get more Middle England than Newport, Shropshire. I just say to people, who are a bit better off and who say - well, this is all very well but what’s it got to do with me - I just say this: do you really want to live in a society where we routinely allow the welfare system to be so dysfunctional, it consigns a considerable number of people to total destitution?

“ You have older relatives and you might be old yourself one day, you’ll need a health service and do you want to go down the road of a health service and adult social care system of last resort, or do you want to live in a society where you will be guaranteed that, irrespective of your income?

“There is a strong moral appeal to an awful lot of people,” he insisted.

But Mr Corbyn’s political pitch appeared to be primarily focused on those who were struggling and in need. What I wondered was he going to do for the majority of voters who were fortunate enough not to be in that position. He could ill afford to ignore the needs and desires of Middle Britain and still expect to get into Downing Street.

Throughout the campaign, I like others have had difficulty believing that Mr Corbyn himself believed he could or indeed wanted to be Prime Minister.

When I asked if, in his heart of hearts, he wished to be the nation’s leader, he replied: “It’s grown fantastically and, yes, we want to win it, and, yes, we want to do it.”

So, come 2020, he could see himself in No 10? “Whether I will live there or be in my own house is a different issue...(Islington) is not that far away; it’s about 20 minutes on the Tube,” he quipped.

The left-winger then went on about how he would have a “collective” view to party leadership; he would establish policy groups made up of MPs and peers to help Shadow Cabinet Ministers form policies.

He explained his policy of Corbyn Collectivism: “I don’t believe the leader should make policy in a top-down directive to everybody. I want to see a policy development process in which you try to co-ordinate and excite people and get ideas. At the end of the day, you have to make a decision as to what the policy is towards the election. That has to be done through the Labour Party structures and not this idea it is all top-down.”

I impolitely pointed out that the 66-year-old politician would be 71 by the time of the 2020 election and, if he won, would become the oldest first-term British premier in history.

“Age is a state of mind and in your heart. I enjoy life. I keep as fit as I possibly can. You have to keep your mind open to everything that’s going on.”

But was the UK, which had recently rejected Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband, really ready for a hairy Leftie to lead it? “People love a beard,” Mr Corbyn replied with a smile.

Corbyn’s campaign in numbers.

*10,000 people have offered to be volunteers;

*1000 media questions asked – and answered;

*70 campaign events attended;

*Twitter followers increased from 32,000 to more than 100,000 and

*£116,000 raised in donations.