Sitting near the back of Labour’s battlebus on a swing through the east Midlands, Jeremy Corbyn steadfastly refuses to become upset about negative headlines. The Sun: Wallies – Manifesto Launch Is Shambles. Daily Mail: Corbyn Plans To Bankrupt Britain. Telegraph: Tax, borrow, spend – Corbyn is Hugo Chavez on steroids.

He appears unfazed. He has had to live with being demonised since becoming leader two years ago. This is nothing new. “Does it get to me? Absolutely not,” he says.

He pauses, looks out the window, wondering if the headlines are even worth commenting on. Eventually, he dismisses the Mail’s as ridiculous. As for the Telegraph’s, he smiles: “I don’t do steroids.”

Away from the cameras, it would be understandable if Corbyn was occasionally tempted to clutch his head in despair. But he shows no sign of that. He comes across as calm, relaxed, oblivious to the general election pressure.

Jeremy Corbyn visits a centre for over-50s that lost all statutory funding.

If he was genuinely anxious, one of his first moves would be, like other politicians, to dive for a smartphone to check in with party headquarters or search for the latest poll figures. Instead, he goes in search of a knife to cut up a chocolate brownie cake, a present from the previous event. He takes his time, distributing it among the small team of aides accompanying him.



It is one of the traits critics in the party have rounded on: that he concentrates on small things, such as ensuring everyone has tea or coffee, rather than keeping all his energy for the big issues, the big decisions. But it is a trait that endears him to others, not least his aides.

Being sanguine seems to work for him. The perception of him is changing. He has outperformed expectations in the election campaign, just as he did in the 2015 Labour leadership contest. He has largely avoided gaffes and conducted a dignified, assured and positive campaign in contrast with Theresa May. Seeing him directly on television rather than through the prism of the printed media has changed the view of him, as his aides predicted.



He could yet, though it is a stretch, pull off a general election upset along the lines of Brexit or Donald Trump. But it could also go badly and he could face pressure to resign. Or he might stay on regardless to ensure the party maintains a steady shift to the left.

The day May announced the general election, Corbyn had been at the cafe in Portcullis House, across the road from parliament. He had been in the office since before 9.00am, expecting a quiet day. He had bought half a dozen cappuccinos for the office, his staff say. On his return, he was told May was planning to make a statement outside Downing Street.

The Labour leader has managed to win people over - narrowing the polling gap with the Conservatives.

The election did not come as a complete surprise. Corbyn had heard a few weeks earlier that the Conservatives were booking advertising space. He called his staff together and told them it was the most important moment of his and their lives. It was going to be a stressful time and they would have to support one another.

He tries to avoid becoming stressed. “I think you have got to be relaxed. Because if I get stressed up and tense it is does not do anyone any good, particularly me.”

To help him relax, he always takes a book on his travels. He was reading Jack London’s Iron Heel, an early 20th-century novel about an oligarchic takeover of America, given to him by a supporter at a campaign stop.

He has maintained from the start he could win. He has to say that. But those around him don’t. Some felt at the time of calling the election, May’s decision was astute. Not just because of her huge poll leads but because Labour was starting from a worse position than in 2015, having lost the Scottish bloc.

At the time, some of Corbyn’s closest supporters, apparently already reconciled to losing, discussed the consequences of defeat, how bad the results would have to be before he would be forced to resign. They wondered if there would be another challenge to him from within the party. There was concern that if he stood down, his deputy Tom Watson would become interim leader, ending the left’s ambitions.

That was then. There is less talk about such doomsday scenarios now as the poll gap narrows, down from 18 points to 12, according to the Guardian’s pollsters, ICM, and down to single digits in others. Corbyn insists he does not pay attention to polls. He has to say that and he is right to say that. His aides have to try to avoid showing even the slightest sign of euphoria.

Labour supporters gather in Birmingham to hear Corbyn speak.

On the road, Corbyn looks happier than at Westminster. Even his opponents acknowledge he is a good campaigner, as he demonstrated in the two leadership contests. And he has got better: he has learned. He is more disciplined than he used to be. When making keynote speeches or at rallies, he is more inclined to stick to a prepared speech, with just an occasional ad-lib. He is more at ease with a teleprompter too.

He has been more or less on the road all the time, apart from the campaign pause after the Manchester bombing. As of this weekend, he has visited 71 constituencies: 34 Labour seats, 33 Conservative ones, three Scottish National party ones and one Lib Dem seat.

He prefers public transport but on the campaign trail there is also the spartan Labour battlebus. Seats have not been pulled out to put in tables, communications hubs or even a bed – as in some US campaigns. The slogan “For the Many Not the Few” is splashed across the outside, but inside the only hint of its present purpose is a red and white Vote Labour placard sitting by a coffee dispenser and a poster lying at the back.

About eight to 10 staff travel with Corbyn. With him, apart from the driver, is a bus manager to make sure he gets to the right location on time, a video-photographer who shoots, cuts and edits as he goes along to post on social media, one or two media relations staff, a head of events and visits, a day planner and staff from the advance team.

Corbyn embraces a supporter at a rally in Sheffield.

The rest of the campaign team is back at Labour HQ in London. Among those at the Victoria headquarters are: Seumas Milne, the head of communciations and strategy and former Guardian columnist; Andrew Fisher, Corbyn’s head of policy; Andrew Murray, seconded from the union Unite; James Schneider, who is involved in strategic communications; and Steve Howell, Milne’s deputy.

The staff on the bus are a mixture of men and women but they prefer to remain anonymous, not wanting to be subjected to tabloid harassment, as Schneider has been and Corbyn’s family.

Corbyn tries to preserve as much privacy as he can. His wife, Laura Alvarez, sometimes attends campaign events but prefers to sit in the audience. “She is very supportive. Has her own activities. She does not wish to be a political wife,” Corbyn says. “We absolutely refused to do the One Show together. I said absolutely no.”

He becomes upset at media intrusion into her life and those of his three sons and his extended family. “They do get abuse, do get harassed. And I thank them for it because they are putting up with things because of what I do.”



Negative campaigning usually works in politics and May has had no compunction about doing this. Corbyn resists personal abuse. “It actually devalues yourself and the process. If I start responding to everything that is said about me that is nasty, unpleasant, rude or attempting to demean me, I am just lowering myself to that level. And so I don’t reply.”



Jeremy Corbyn joins party members campaigning on housing in Clapham, south London.

Rather than targeting May, Labour has focused on the positive, its strategy based around its manifesto.



The leaking of a draft was one of the few angry occasions. When Corbyn’s office heard it had been leaked to the Mirror and the Telegraph, there was incredulity over what was viewed as an act of sabotage.

He says he was very disappointed, adding, after a pause, an extra “very” to emphasise the point. “Because we had put a huge amount of work into a final draft. It had been sent to me and a very small number of people.”

The person who leaked it may not have known how small the circulation was, just a handful. “It is very difficult to countenance it as anything other than people trying to undermine the party.”

If elected prime minister, his first move, besides cabinet appointments, would be to set out priorities for government: education, housing, social care and the NHS. With Labour committed to a softer Brexit, he would make immediate calls to the European commission as well as Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron.



Corbyn arrives in Hull to launch Labour’s cultural manifesto.

He would have to talk to Trump. “Obviously, I will be polite, as I always am to everyone.” He would hope initially to discuss trade, the environment and strategic issues.

He has already had discussions with the Queen and does not see the weekly meetings as a problem. Among favourite topics at the palace is gardening.

He would probably have to move to Downing Street. He says: “I am very happy where I live. Others may wish me to move. I did not become leader of the Labour party to get a new house. There are going to be pressures. Security issues, no doubt. But I like where I live. My neighbours like me being there as well, most of the time.”

Little in Corbyn’s background suggests he would stand down if Labour loses. Aged 68, he has been involved in politics throughout his adult life, supporting leftwing causes in the UK and around the world. Now he needs to keep fighting. He feels an obligation to those who twice elected him leader.

If Labour loses, the campaign still had lots of positives. He has enthused the young. Some of those who once believed the tabloid demonisation of him have warmed to him. He has shown the Conservatives to be vulnerable. And he has moved policies once regarded as radical – even socialist – into the mainstream.

Speaking before the election was called, one of his closest political allies said Corbyn did not want to be remembered for just “two summers of madness”, referring to the leadership contests. He wanted to become a leader who transformed Britain.

Chatting after a campaign event in Oxfordshire, Corbyn declines to say yes or no to the leadership question. Everything points to him staying on but he offers only a cryptic reply: “I am in politics for the long haul.”