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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn visited Leamington today as he aimed to win over voters in the Conservative seat with a rousing speech.

Hundreds of supporters filled the area outside Leamington Town Hall with the crowd even spilling into the road forcing police to direct traffic around people standing on The Parade.

The Warwick and Leamington constituency is currently held by Conservative Chris White who won the 2015 by a majority of almost 7,000 from Labour’s Lynnette Kelly.

It would take an almost inconceivable swing for the Labour Party to wrest control of the seat from the Tories -but Mr Corbyn urged supporters not to write off his party just yet.

(Image: Russell Whitehead photography www.russellwhitehead.com)

Here are five key things we took from Mr Corbyn’s visit and his 10-minute speech.

1) He’s popular. More than 200 people were at the rally outside Leamington Town Hall, along with much of the national press.

There’s no denying Mr Corbyn has pull, but is it enough to make him the next Prime Minister?

2) In a climate where many of the polls say Labour are heading for a landslide defeat, Mr Corbyn reminded us he’s beaten the odds before.

He said: “We’ve got one month today until the General Election. Many of the media have written people off in the past.

“Indeed, I started out at 200/1 to be leader of the Labour Party.”

3) He supports Arsenal, as does Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Warwick and Leamington, Matt Western.

That was not a fact that was particularly popular when it was brought up by Mr Western as he introduced the Labour leader with many of Mr Corbyn’s supporters engaging in some light-hearted booing.

Mr Corbyn said: “I’m sorry if our support for a particular football team causes any controversy.

“But, you know what? You have to stick to your beliefs!”

(Image: Russell Whitehead photography www.russellwhitehead.com)

4) Mr Corbyn thinks Warwick and Leamington is an important seat.

He said: “Winning Warwick and Leamington, winning here, gives us a chance of forming a Labour government that will do things very differently in this country.”

He added: “Make sure that we win Warwick and Leamington. By winning Warwick and Leamington, that’s a message to the whole country.

“We are strong, we are healthy, we’re in great heart, we’re going to go out there with a message.

“For the many, not the few.”

5) He used Mental Health Awareness week to issue a message about the importance of speaking openly about mental health issues.

He said: “There are many going through a mental health crisis who are not getting the support that they need.

“A quarter of us in our lifetime will face a mental health crisis.

“We need to have a service that’s able to help and support us.

“We also need a society and a community that doesn’t stigmatise people going through a mental health crisis.

“We have shown that we are very serious about this by appointing Barbara Keeley to my shadow cabinet to represent the needs of social care and mental health in our society. It’s that serious, we have got to deal with it.”

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