Will Labour put up with Corbyn for eight months or five years?

Ladbrokes offer a fascinating market on when Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will be relieved of his post, with 2020 or beyond the 6/4 favourite, 2016 next at 5/2, and 4/1 bar.

The reason next year is so much shorter than every other except the favourite can be explained by Tony Blair’s former Director of Political Strategy, and staunch Corbyn foe, John McTernan, who recently wrote in the Telegraph:

“I have heard many agonised conversations about the mechanics of a challenge – this will not be necessary. In the words of the rule book: When the Parliamentary Labour Party is in opposition in the House of Commons, the election of the leader and the deputy leader shall take place at each annual session of Party conference.”

The plotting Scot goes on to remind his readers that the Parliamentary Labour Party are in control of who gets on the ballot, and considering Corbyn needed favours from non-supporting MPs to make the cut during the summer, it’s entirely possible the 66-year-old could be blocked from running next September.

However, the damage this would cause to an already fractured party means the army of moderate Labour MPs aren’t inclined to act, leaving the likes of McTernan to plough lonely furrows in the media.

At present, there is clearly a feeling among long-time members that Corbyn, and the left, must be seen to fail once and for all, while taking on a man with a near 60 per cent mandate to lead seems too great a task for Labour’s shell-shocked leading lights.

Former paratrooper and current Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis, still something of an ‘Invisible Man’ to much of the watching public, is the 3/1 jolly to get the job next, with new Member for Holborn and St Pancras Keir Starmer, who has been doing the media rounds of late, fifth-favourite at 14/1.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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