Jeremy Corbyn is spending his down time from the Labour leadership race reading a book about how to recover from the fallout of a major disaster.

The Labour leader has named Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich on his summer reading list as MPs from across the political divide shared their picks with The Telegraph.

Described as a “monument to suffering” by Nobel Prize judges, the Belarusian writer’s work explores the impact of the biggest nuclear power plant disaster in history.

The book’s collection of witness monologues is said by reviewers to lay bare the “incompetence, heroism and grief” at the heart of the 1986 botched experiment.

But the choice has raised eyebrows among Labour moderates who are fighting Mr Corbyn for the leadership and believe the existence of the party is at stake.

“If he wants to study apocalyptic scenarios, he doesn’t need to look any further than the present situation in Labour,” one MP joked.