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It was all going so well. Two days on the battle bus, at the very heart of the Labour election campaign.

But early on Wednesday evening, the news dropped that the manifesto had leaked.

Weeks of careful planning had gone.

What had been a busy, happy atmosphere became fraught.

One senior staffer flopped down opposite me after a long call from HQ. He said: “The thing is – the really disappointing thing – is that it’s a really ****ing good manifesto.

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“We would have liked more control over it but it’s out there now.”

There was a long pause. “It wasn’t anything to do with you, was it?”

It wasn’t.

The mood before that had been much more upbeat.

Wherever Team Corbyn turns up, the reception is the same.

If the election was as straightforward as people turning out to see him, he would be home and dry.

One staffer told me: “The crowds are always friendly. But that can be a problem in itself. They won’t let him go.”

secret

I’ve spent a lot of time with Team Corbyn this campaign.

The staff are young and enthusiastic, fuelled by Diet Coke, fruit and weird-looking energy bars.

At 67, you would expect Mr Corbyn to be feeling the pace a bit. But he doesn’t.

When I asked him the secret to keeping going, he told me, “vegetarianism and clean-living”, then looked like he was going to say something else before shaking his head and walking away.

On the bus, he spends time chatting to senior staff, taking endless phone calls and reading the latest briefs.

Outside one stop in South Yorkshire – where hundreds of people turned up to see him – I had a chat with the coach driver.

“Are you with the bus all the time?”

“Yep. All the way through to June. I was supposed to be doing a Shakin’ Stevens tour but they took me off it.”

“Shakin’ Stevens, really? I didn’t know he was still going.”

“Oh yes. Goes all over the country, will be a big tour. He’s got fans everywhere.”

“Like this?” I asked, looking at the turnout.

The driver looked around, thought for a minute, then said: “I suppose it’s a different sort of crowd with Shakey.”

It probably is.