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Jeremy Corbyn marks a year as Labour leader today – as a new analysis reveals the party’s poll ratings are the worst it has ever had in opposition.

Labour trails the Tories by an average of 11 points.

Not since modern polling methods began in the 1950s has the party suffered such a gap 12 months after a leadership contest.

It is also the second biggest gulf for any major opposition party in modern history.

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Only the 25-point lead enjoyed by Labour over the Conservatives in June 1998 was bigger, one year after William Hague became Tory leader.

The Press Association compiled the data using figures from the Nuffield British General Election studies, which have been published since 1945.

(Image: PA)

When Ed Miliband reached his first anniversary as Labory leader, the party was ahead of the Conservatives by an average of three points.

And one year into David Cameron’s stint as Tory chief, his party had already opened up a five-point lead over the then Labour government.

The Labour leader with the next worst poll deficit in opposition after Mr Corbyn was Neil Kinnock.

One year into the Welshman’s stint, in October 1984, Labour lagged behind by an average of five points.

By contrast, the biggest average poll lead for Labour 12 months after electing a new leader was 26 points - by Tony Blair in July 1995.

Mr Corbyn’s leadership rival Owen Smith warned the Tories were “running rampant” against Labour.

Mr Corbyn has “mass appeal to a small section of the electorate” but “You can’t mistake mass rallies for a mass movement”, added the challenger.

(Image: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror)

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Mr Corbyn’s most senior ally, predicted Labour would unite after the contest.

“What I hope happens at the end of this election campaign, that phrase ‘what’s said on tour, remains on tour’ I think will apply,” he said.

“Once the decision is made, the ballot is cast and we have the count, I think Labour MPs, the vast bulk of them and the vast bulk of our membership, the whole of the movement, I think, will unite behind the new leader.”

He hoped Mr Smith - who vowed to try and take Britain back into the EU if he became Prime Minister - would return to the Shadow Cabinet after Mr Corbyn’s expected victory.

“I have always looked upon him as a mate, I have always looked upon him as someone who is incredibly talented and someone who could, I think, make a major contribution,” said Mr McDonnell.

Meanwhile, a prominent Labour donor has been suspended by the party after comparing Mr Corbyn’s allies to Hitler’s stormtroopers.

(Image: Reuters)

Michael Foster was barred after writing a newspaper article in which he claimed to have been smeared as a Jewish donor.

Mr Foster told the BBC: “The methodology of the hard left in Britain, the political hard left in Britain, is very much following a well-worn path.

“It is an imitation of all the 20th and 21st century extreme political parties, where they attempt to infiltrate bona fide parties by taking over an acceptable ideology and then forming a party within a party - such as Momentum.”

He feared a fresh purge of Mr Corbyn’s critics if the current leader triumphs when the result is announced on September 24.

By contrast, the biggest average lead for Labour 12 months after electing a new leader was 26 points – for Tony Blair in July 1995.

Meanwhile, Labour donor Michael Foster has been suspended by the party after comparing Mr Corbyn’s allies with Hitler’s stormtroopers in a newspaper article.

Timeline of Corbyn's first year

Jeremy Corbyn has endured and occasionally enjoyed a turbulent 12 months as Labour leader.

His amazing triumph last September 12 sent shock waves through the party - and stunned its 231 MPs.

(Image: Getty Images)

There was no honeymoon.

On September 15, just three days after his victory, he was accused of snubbing our war heroes by failing to sing the National Anthem at a Battle of Britain memorial service.

(Image: PA)

The lifelong republican and peace campaigner was also criticised for failing to do up his top button and knot his tie properly.

On September 29, he addressed his first Labour conference as leader. The speech was a rambling collection of slogans and he fluffed several lines, but his adoring fans lapped it up.

One of his biggest tests came on December 2 when he sat stony-faced as he listened to his then Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn make a spellbinding Commons speech supporting RAF air strikes against ISIS in Syria.

The pitch-perfect speech triggered rare applause in the chamber, but Mr Corbyn did not join in and voted against bombing raids moments later.

(Image: Getty)

The gulf between the leader and the Parliamentary Labour Party had been bitterly exposed.

And it widened over his lukewarm support for the EU when on June 10, at the height of the referendum campaign, he admitted on TV that his passion for the union was “seven, or seven and a half” out of 10.

As the Brexit result emerged on June 24, his leadership hit a new low.

Furious MPs tried to organise a coup and Benn was sacked on June 25, triggering a wave of shadow ministerial resignations.

(Image: Carl Court/Getty Images)

On June 28, Labour MPs backed a no confidence motion in their leader by 172 votes to 40.

His refusal to quit sparked a leadership race with first Angela Eagle then Owen Smith bidding to oust him.

But on September 24, Corbyn is almost certain to be re-crowned when the result is revealed.