Political Tom and Jerry Show set to run and run

"Suddenly Labour's own Tom and Jerry are no joke"

Animal Instincts

Bringing together a cartoon cat and mouse act during the dog days of August may sound like midsummer madness. It certainly seemed that way when the idea first emerged that Labour's leadership contest might produce a rerun of Tom and Jerry.

The West Bromwich East MP Tom Watson, veteran of many a bruising election campaign, quickly became the favourite for the deputy leadership.

But who would have predicted the phenomenon now known as Corbyn-mania? Suddenly Labour's own Tom and Jerry are no joke. YouGov now has Jeremy Corbyn so far ahead of his rivals that its president, Peter Kellner, tells us he is on course to win by a knock-out in the first round.

First round knock-out?

How things have changed in a little over three weeks since I asked the one-time Blairite Labour MP for Wolverhampton South East and shadow Europe minister Pat McFadden how he viewed the prospect of being led by a socialist.

With a dismissive shrug and a smile he told me that it would certainly not help Labour to be re-elected. But with equal certainty he told me a Corbyn victory was simply not going to happen. Some of his fellow West Midlands shadow ministerial colleagues are not smiling now.

The shadow communities secretary and Wolverhampton North East MP Emma Reynolds and the shadow chief secretary and Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood are both sufficiently exercised about the possibility of Jeremy Corbyn winning that they have warned they would not serve on the front bench under him.

'Industrial-scale infiltration'

But how reliable is all this polling anyway, given how little is known about the electorate itself, which includes so many new Labour members who have paid their £3 fee to join up? 166,753 signed up during the final 24 hours before registration closed, bringing the total of eligible voters to 610,753. The party says it has "robust defences" against the widely-reported "industrial-scale infiltration" by Greens, Socialists and even Conservative 'saboteurs'.

Dave Nellist, the former Labour MP for Coventry South East, expelled from the party 24 years ago during its purge of the Militant 'party within a party', now leads the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition which fielded 700 candidates in the last general and local elections. He emphatically denies encouraging his 5,000 supporters to sign-up, pointing out that unlike Labour, "TUSC is 100% anti-austerity".

I have also asked local Conservative activists if they have quietly become Tories for Corbyn. Back comes the stock response that it is not for them to intrude into Labour's private grief.

But what if that grief is not really Labour's alone?

The Labour leadership candidates are (l-r): Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn, Liz Kendall and Andy Burnham

Anti-politics politics

Nigel Farage, Nicola Sturgeon, Alexis Tsipras, Marine Le Pen and now Donald Trump may all be seen as anti-politician politicians riding a tide of disillusionment with austerity policies. Fears that a similar tidal surge may propel Jeremy Corbyn into Labour's top job are leading increasingly senior figures in the party to demand a pause, a rethink or a reality check to stop the whole thing running out of control: whatever 'control' means in a democratic election.

One leading figure conspicuous by his absence from the fray, the Stoke Central MP and shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt, told Midlands Today immediately after the general election that his party needed to reflect on its defeat, analyse it, and consider carefully how to respond. Above all it must resist any temptation to lurch into a divisive leadership contest. "We must agree the lyrics before we choose the lead singer," he told us.

He will not be the only member of his party who now wishes that advice had been heeded.

With just over a month to go until the result on Saturday, 12 September, Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell says a Corbyn victory would be "a car crash" for Labour.

And who was among the first to tell him to be quiet? None other than the aforementioned Tom Watson, pledging his support for whoever eventually wins.

If we are about to see another Tom and Jerry show, we can expect predictions from within the party and beyond, more apocalyptic even than Alastair Campbell's nightmare vision, of a party coming to an end like one of those knockabout cartoons.

'THAT'S ALL FOLKS!'