The Labour Party is “ramping up” preparations to relaunch Jeremy Corbyn as a leftwing populist figure in the new year as the party seeks to ride the anti-politics mood following Brexit.
Mr Corbyn is expected to appear more frequently on television, and a newly bolstered team of advisers are said to be working to develop flagship policies to highlight his willingness to lead a revolt against vested interests.
Senior party officials reportedly believe the Islington North MP's unpolished authenticity could gather support from the same anti-establishment sentiment that has heralded the popularity of the likes of Donald Trump and Nigel Farage, and believe this could bolster his chances in a potential early election.
Labour is 14 percentage points behind the Conservatives, according to the latest ICM poll, and the party suffered a severe defeat in recent byelections.
But Jon Trickett, the party’s election coordinator, said there was a lot of “work going on behind the scenes”. He the Guardian: “Theresa May has said there will not be a snap election; that doesn’t mean there won’t be an early election. It’s our job to be ready.
“We’re ramping up the organisation now. There’s a great deal of analytical work going on behind the scenes. We need to frame an argument about Britain, its past, present and future – but we will be doing that in a carefully modulated way.”
Mr Trickett rejected claims by Labour MPs that the new recruits, of which numbers have been growing since Mr Corbyn won the leadership, are reluctant to play their part in campaigning, saying they were “mobilised, and ready to go”.
“We are the largest party in Europe. Elections consist of an air war and a ground war. The kind of ground war we’re going to run would be something on a scale this country hasn’t seen before,” he added.
“That’s an important new feature in British politics, which we’re going to be using.”
The Labour Party has appeared increasingly divided in recent months over key issues such as immigration.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott recently urged against Labour becoming “Ukip-lite”, while in September her predecessor, Andy Burnham, accused the party of failing to acknowledge that millions of Labour supporters “voted for change on immigration” in backing Brexit.
