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Thousands of Jeremy Corbyn fans descended on a Brighton park tonight for a mass rally to kick off Labour's "biggest ever" party conference.

In scenes more like a music festival than a political rally, Labour's leader bounded onto a U2-style mid-crowd stage as the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme tune boomed out of a speaker stack.

His 20-minute tub-thumping speech rattled through Labour's manifesto as Mr Corbyn attacked Theresa May, Donald Trump and the "arid nasty individualism we inherited from the Thatcher era."

He was flanked by left-wing allies who turned their focus squarely on major rule changes handing more power to the Labour left - which have dominated the run-up to the four day conference.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

One, John McDonnell, declared: "I happen to be the Shadow Chancellor. I'll tell you a secret. I'm going to be Chancellor!"

Jennie Formby, a Unite union rep on Labour's ruling NEC, congratulated pro-Corbyn group Momentum for doing a "brilliant job" and earned boos when she mentioned for Blairite group Progress.

She described party reforms, which will boost members' role electing a Labour leader and NEC members, as "one of the best things Jeremy is bringing to our party."

She hailed the influx of hundreds of thousands of members and said the battle to get Mr Corbyn on last year's leadership ballot paper was "the battle we should never have fought."

Andi Fox of the TSSA union added: "Just imagine what we can achieve if we stay united and campaign all year round."

(Image: Daily Mirror)

The crowd of young fans chanted "oh Jeremy Corbyn" and sipped from beer cans in the evening sunset as the Socialist Workers' Party handed out literature - including an invitation to celebrate the centenary of the Russian Revolution - at the gate.

Activist Martha Osamor - mum of shadow cabinet minister Kate - declared: "For the first time in seven years, brothers and sisters, we are on the brink of something historic - a Labour government that's true to our socialist values."

Pumped-up Mr Corbyn grinned and even danced and took pictures of the crowd on his phone as he stood surrounded by his backers.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

He joked at John McDonnell's expense after his colleague said "grey beards" predicted Labour couldn't win.

"It's outrageous!" he said. "It's only because he hasn't got one! I tried - you can't persuade everybody to do everything. He won't grow a beard. It's outrageous and it's appalling."

And the crowd booed "all those experts" that Mr Corbyn said gathered "to write us all off" - and were wrong because "they were only ever talking to each other."

Labour's leader slammed Donald Trump for quitting the Paris climate deal.

And he suggested he'd rather reject a US-UK trade deal altogether than "cosy up" to the President like Theresa May.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

"We are not going down that road," he said of Mrs May's tactics.

"If you just cosy up to do a sort of cosy trade deal with Donald Trump, it's not going to work, it's going to damage all of us."

He said if he was Prime Minister he would "pick up the phone to Donald Trump" and demand he rejoin the Paris agreement that came from 50 years of pressure.

"There is as far as I know only one planet that has human life on it. Donald Trump may know different," he said. "But so far the evidence is pretty thin."

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Mr Corbyn declared Labour would not "bow down before the Murdoch empire."

And he also earned huge boos from the crowd when he slammed Theresa May's £1bn deal with the DUP to stay in power.

"Don't be unkind please", he told his fans sarcastically. "Ours is a kinder form of politics."

He then ended with his prepared punchline: "They're so brilliant each MP () is worth £100million."

All that's just the half of it. Here are some of the things we saw tonight....

It was a lot like a music festival

There was even a (small) moshpit down the front while the crowd waited for Corbyn to come on

Quite a few people turned up

(Image: Mikey Smith/ Daily Mirror)

There were some unusual banners

Of course, the DJ dropped the White Stripes

And the man himself was welcomed to the stage with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme

Corbyn delivered his speech from a platform in the middle of the crowd. Like U2, or the Rolling Stones

And at the end of his speech, he almost did a dance