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Oh Je-rem-y Cor-byn was this summer’s greatest political hit but his Left-wing supporters are frantically preparing for life after their bearded messiah.

Trade union general secretaries tell me they’re in knife-edge negotiations with the Labour leader’s office over rewriting the rules at the party conference in Brighton to make it easier for the next Corbyn to be crowned.

Jezza has declared himself fit, healthy and eager to be the party’s frontman at the next General Election.

Yet there’s plenty of time for him to change his mind when that poll could be as distant as June 2022.

And, at the venerable age of 73, he might find himself up against a new Tory kid on the block.

How confident the Corbyn camp feels will dictate whether it seeks to reform radically the party ­permanently – strengthening the position of those who share his brand of socialism – when risking defeat if the votes on the conference floor don’t add up next week isn’t an option for his team.

The backing of the Unite trade union and from Unison and the GMB is considered crucial.

But I’m told also there’s also a groundswell among new members in a party topping 550,000 – exceeding every other British political party combined, including the Conservatives, Libs, Greens, SNP and DUP – to release the stranglehold of MPs over who is able to run for the top job.

Reducing from 15% to 5% the nominations needed from MPs and (while they exist) MEPs would perpetually enfranchise the Corbyn Left when he’s an accidental leader under the existing constitution.

He scrambled to beg and borrow endorsements to be on the ballot paper from those such as former Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, who swiftly regretted agreeing.

Introducing a requirement to secure nominations from constituency parties and trade unions would further weaken the grip of a ­Parliamentary Labour Party which 12 months ago tried to ditch Corbyn.

According to one of the union general secretaries involved: “Now is the moment to stick or twist. We change the rules or keep the rules.

“There are pluses and minuses in doing both – but there’s only a ­downside if, year after year, we talked to ourselves about internal democracy instead of speaking to the electorate about why we need a Labour ­Government.”

Labour divisions remain real but suddenly it resembles a tea party compared with Conservatives descending into Brexit civil war.

Oh Je-rem-y Cor-byn won’t last for ever. Judgements on what sound like arcane rules determine who and what comes next.