Labour needs a leader who stands up to George Osborne’s cuts agenda

Jeremy Corbyn has been criticised as a throwback, but he is a timely reminder to his party of its values. And history has hardly been kinder to the Conservatives

As CJ, the managing director in a famous bygone BBC television series, might have said: I did not get where I am today forecasting the outcome of elections for the Labour leadership. But we have certainly moved a long way from 1976, when there were no fewer than six heavyweight contestants, namely Jim Callaghan (who won), Denis Healey, Roy Jenkins, Tony Crosland, Michael Foot and Tony Benn.

Now, for all the badmouthing of Jeremy Corbyn, my hope is that in due course he will be seen to have been a beneficent influence, forcing the other candidates to do some serious soul-searching - for the soul of the Labour party, no less.

In 1979, the Thatcher cabinet was replete with ministers who claimed manufacturing did not matter

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