Nothing is inevitable, Jeremy Corbyn has insisted during Labour’s second summer of fun.
The chief socialist was referring to the prospect of him standing down should Labour somehow lose the next general election.
Normally, leaders who lose polls graciously “depart the stage,” as Sir John Major put it after being clobbered by Tony Blair’s New Labour almost 20 years ago. Hague, Howard, Brown and Miliband followed suit and Salmond and Cameron fell on their swords after losing high stakes referendums.
Read more: Jeremy Corbyn thanks remaining shadow cabinet members in pitch to keep leadership
But as we know, these are not normal times, and Jeremy is not your conventional leader; which, of course, for some, is part of his appeal.
Indeed, Mr Corbyn’s remark was telling as it came just two weeks after his campaign manager, shadow chancellor and chum John McDonnell insisted that if Labour lost the election, then, yes, it was “inevitable” both men would step down.
Labour rebels have privately and publicly let it be known that, despite their deep despair at the Corbyn leadership, they will not split the party.
Owen Smith, the affable challenger, has told this newspaper that if he loses, he personally will not walk away; insisting he is Labour to his bootstraps.
With all the signs suggesting another convincing Corbyn win in September, the MP for Pontypridd has indicated that, if this were the case, then he believes the party will indeed split. But MPs are very wary of the idea of the emergence of a new centre left party given the woeful experience of the SDP experiment in 1981.
Also, the idea the 80 per cent of Labour MPs who said they had no confidence in the Islington MP’s leadership could form a new block – a self-styled Labour Parliamentary Party – which, given the numbers, could become Her Majesty’s official opposition, has also been rejected.
Read more: Jeremy Corbyn thanks remaining shadow cabinet members in pitch to keep leadership
But what happens if Labour is trounced in 2020? What if its current contingent of 230 MPs falls well below 200 and Theresa May’s notional majority, currently 10, rises to more than 80?
Some Labour MPs have been hopeful of a snap poll so the PM might provide a shortcut to jettisoning Jezza.
However, Mrs May has, thus far, been adamant she is not minded to have an early election given the complexities of the Brexit negotiations.
If the next general election arrives on schedule in four years’ time and Labour, as many pundits are predicting, lose badly, then Mr Corbyn’s three-word remark will instil trepidation into the hearts of Labour rebels.
Read more: Jeremy Corbyn thanks remaining shadow cabinet members in pitch to keep leadership
It may well be the Corbyn critics are right; that the current leader is more focused on remodelling the party in his own image – recreating Old Labour in a volteface from Blair’s New Labour – than actually crossing the No 10 threshold.
Yet, if the party leader, who will be on the cusp of his 72nd year in May 2020, does indeed decide to call it a day, who would bet that the successor Corbynite candidate will not win the subsequent leadership election?
Mr Corbyn’s critics are perhaps hoping his "nothing is inevitable" is indeed true and that, come September 24, it is Citizen Smith, who ends up wearing the Labour crown.
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