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Labour shadow cabinet ministers resigned en masse because they were afraid Jeremy Corbyn would win an election, it was claimed this morning.

Journalist-turned Labour activist Paul Mason said members of Mr Corbyn's top team had co-ordinated the mass walkout because they feared it was their "last chance" to unseat him before a "winnable" general election.

He made the comments on the BBC's Broadcasting House programme this morning, interviewed alongside Rhea Wolfson - a member of Labour's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).

Ms Wolfson, who was elected to the NEC this month with the backing of pro-Corbyn group Momentum, agreed that an early election was winnable if Labour can mobilise the huge increase in party membership to campaign on the doorstep.

(Image: Jack Taylor)

The former economics editor for BBC Newsnight said: "I think Jeremy Corbyn will win. Or, let's put it this way, he will be in a position to form a government.

"That, of course, is what the Labour rebels were worried about on the day after Brexit . Remember the sequence of this. It looked like there was going to be an early general election with the Tories in disarray.

"I still think the Tories will be in disarray over the next few years. And I think the guardians of elite power inside the Labour party decided it was enough.

"They texted each other saying 'this is our last chance, otherwise the guy has the chance of leading the party into an election and that election is winnable".

He went on to suggest that although Scotland was lost to Labour, up to 20 key marginals in England and Wales could turn to Labour if they could attract Green party voters.

Mr Mason denied Mr Corbyn was increasingly gaffe-prone.

(Image: facebook)

"I don't see them as gaffes." he said, in response to the Traingate controversy.

"This is just the normal knockabout that Jeremy Corbyn is going to have to get used to when he runs the country.

"We haven't had a radical leader of the Labour party probably since George Lansbury. I've no doubt the press treated him the same way. We just have to get used to it."

He was also asked about Mr Corbyn's claim that US Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders had sent him a message of support, which was later revealed to be untrue.

He said: "There are bigger things than that with respect. To media land the train thing looks like a gaffe. To us, whatever the Daily Mail and Richard Branson and the rest of them say, it dramatises the problem of power in our society.

"We've got this guy, Richard Branson, who with impunity, let's put it this way, can act outside the provisions of the law on CCTV because he owns the trains. He owns the railway. He owns 300 health franchises. People who work for him can do none of those things and those people need a party that fights for them and that's what we're trying to provide."

Ms Wolfson said it "really didn't matter" to her whether there were available seats on the Virgin Train which Mr Corbyn claimed was "ram packed"

She said: "In terms of whether I'm willing to trust Virgin Trains, this huge capitalist company, or whether I'm going to trust Jeremy Corbyn, I'm going to trust him before anyone else. I'm just sad that the debate became what it became instead of having a genuine conversation about the state of our railways."