Labour’s new members want the party to ‘move away from Corbynism’ after general election disaster Exclusive: More than 24,000 people are reported to have signed up to join the party for first time, or rejoin it after quitting under Corbyn

The majority of people who have joined the Labour Party in the week since its election disaster want the party to change from Corbynism, according to initial analysis from insiders.

More than 24,000 people are reported to have signed up to join the party for the first time, or rejoin it after quitting under Jeremy Corbyn, since the 12 December election.

Party sources say that around a third of new members are sympathetic to Mr Corbyn and have been signed up via Momentum, the grassroots Corbynite membership organisation.

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But the other two-thirds are either “soft left” long-term Labour voters who want to take the party in a “new direction” after Mr Corbyn stands down in March, or are avowedly pro-Remain supporters who want the party to strike a clearer anti-Brexit stance at the start of the new decade – despite the remain cause looking like a lost hope.

Shift to the centre

Many of this group are people who quit Labour because of Mr Corbyn and want the party to move back to the centre, sources said.

The party membership plays a crucial role in Labour leadership elections. In 2016, Mr Corbyn was backed by 61 per cent of the party’s 500,000 members, signifying the mountain any candidate from the centre left would have to climb in order to get elected.

But a source said: “It is clear that there is a group of people out there who are interested in joining the party, either from the soft or centre left, to try to get the party back to electability again.”

In the wake of Labour’s worst election result since 1935, it was reported that veteran moderate figures like Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former director of communications, are hoping to get 100,000 people to join the party and take it back from Corbyn loyalists.

The analysis comes from a sample of phone conversations with the new members and, while it is not statistically rigorous, suggests the direction of travel of a new influx of Labour grassroots.