Labour leaders who won general elections (including Tony Blair) did so without the majority of national newspapers supporting them.

If Jeremy Corbyn is to lead Labour to victory, it looks as if he will have to do so with virtually no press backing whatsoever.

The Sunday nationals greeted his increased mandate in the leadership triumph, which he viewed as a personal “vindication”, with yet another round of highly critical editorials.

Although predictable from the rightwing titles, the traditional Labour papers were anything but delighted by the result.

In winning, said the Sunday Times, Corbyn had plunged “his party into a dark age.” Now “his praetorian guard, Momentum... may now feel at liberty to go on the offensive and deselect moderates.”

The paper did not believe it would herald the formation “of a breakaway moderate party” with memories in mind of the SDP’s failure.

The Sunday Telegraph acknowledged that Corbyn’s increased majority “was a genuine accomplishment” but dismissed Corbyn’s “revolutionary” economic policies - raising the higher rate of income tax and cracking down on tax evasion - as likely to “drive up inflation and kill economic growth”.

Like the Sunday Times, it argued that Labour “does not provide a serious alternative to the Tories”, so “Britain is lacking a credible opposition”.

The Mail on Sunday contended that Corbyn is “manifestly unfit to become prime minister” and therefore, by voting for him, “party members have dealt a blow to British democracy”.

With Theresa May “embarking on challenging domestic reforms... she should be tested by a leader of the opposition who has a credible chance of supplanting her. Corbyn is not that man” and “we will all be the losers if Britain becomes a one-party state”.

The Sun on Sunday also thought Corbyn’s re-election as Labour leader “is electoral suicide” and “guarantees a Conservative government for the foreseeable future”.

Pointing to the divisions within Labour, the paper cited an ICM poll which found that “the overwhelming majority of voters say they find both Mr Corbyn’s style and leftwing policies a big turn-off”.

Its editorial said: “It’s clear that Labour is on the edge of oblivion” because “it has been taken over by a bunch of hard-left activists who live in fantasy land.” Labour is now no more than a fringe party.

And, unsurprisingly, the Sunday Express saw it in similar terms. “The party has consigned itself to electoral oblivion for decades.”

So what of the non-Tory press? The Sunday People began its leading article by saying it had never been Corbyn’s greatest fan, “but we respect the democratic decision of Labour party members”. Up to a point.

With a ComRes poll having found only 16% of voters with a belief in Corbyn’s prime ministerial qualities, it said: “An unelectable leader is about as much use as an ice-cream in the desert.”

The People concluded: “Mr Corbyn may yet confound us all and fulfil that ambition. We wish him well as he attempts to do so.”

That tepid support was echoed by the People’s stablemate, the Sunday Mirror. Corbyn had proved again that he could win over Labour members: “He has yet to prove he can win over the country.”

It also cited the ComRes poll, saying it was “devastating” for Corbyn. The party had lost its way. He “must get a grip on the trolls, racists and Trots making life a misery for others”.

The Independent thought Corbyn’s success represents “the greatest victory for the Labour left since the 1930s” and “buries Labour’s centre-right for the foreseeable future”.

Labour MPs needed to accept a “harsh truth”: the party “belongs to its members”. But it doesn’t matter what MPs do because “Labour is set for an electoral disaster such as it cannot imagine”.

Corbyn and his party “are drifting further away from the voters they need to persuade to return Labour to government. They are gifting the Tories a 15-point lead... Demos and marches are fine, but they won’t win Nuneaton, Corby or Morley back.” It continued:

After a year of mostly disappointing public performances from Mr Corbyn, a year of open contempt from his MPs and a year when he failed to mobilise his movement to defeat Brexit, the members still demonstrably love Mr Corbyn, just as the wider electorate remain unmoved by him, his policies and his principles...

More than ever in its history, the Labour party now resembles a cult of personality. For that reason, and that alone, Mr Corbyn is here to stay. It will, in time, become a matter of regret.”

The Observer also noted that “the gulf between the Labour party’s membership and its MPs has never looked wider”. Looking back at the past year, it stated:

Under Corbyn’s leadership, the party provided chaotic and ineffective opposition during one of the most seismic periods in British political history.

His anaemic support of the Remain campaign to stay in Europe was a low point in his leadership. Labour suffers from the worst-ever poll ratings for an opposition party 12 months on from a leadership contest. And there is a real danger that in the wake of yesterday’s result, the divisiveness of the last 12 months culminates in mutually assured destruction.”

The Observer accused Corbyn of tacitly encouraging “a divisive culture, intolerant of dissent” and said his leadership “has also been racked by incompetence.”

But it warned the MPs who expressed no confidence in Corbyn “to learn the lessons of the last year” which should mean no further attempts to depose him.

Labour’s MPs “have a responsibility to contribute to the business of opposition, whether from the shadow cabinet or select committees, and to do what they can to recruit members to broaden out the Labour church”.

Meanwhile, it encouraged dissident MPs to “work behind the scenes to develop a positive Labour agenda... If both sides can shift approach, they may reach a compromise that enables unified opposition in areas where there is agreement, such as grammar schools or the NHS.”



For now, it concluded, “an uncomfortable truce” is “the best that can be hoped for”.

NB: can anyone predict the result of this latest Sunday Express poll? It asked: “Are lefty militants destroying Labour?”