Corbyn schooled May on strong and stable leadership and it was glorious

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking in the House of Commons, London, during its first sitting since the election. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

Watch as the Labour leader throws Tory campaign slogans back at May in the first week back of Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn was on top form at the first day back in the House of Commons since the election, telling May: ‘I’m sure she will agree with me that democracy is a wondrous thing and can throw up some very unexpected results.’ The Labour leader continued to inform May that he looked forward to hearing the Queen’s speech ‘just as soon as the coalition of chaos has been negotiated’, before adding to much amusement: ‘I’ll just let the house and the rest of the nation know that, if that’s not possible, the Labour Party stands ready to offer strong and stable leadership in the national interest.’

On Tuesday evening Corbyn was greeted with cheers and a 45-second ovation as he arrived at the first meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party since the election which saw May’s Tories lose their Commons majority.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is applauded by his MPs as he enters the House of Commons, London, for its first sitting since the election. – Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

The scenes were in marked contrast to the difficult meetings Corbyn had with his critics in the parliamentary party before the election.

Theresa May’s premiership has no mandate and no legitimacy, the Leader of the Opposition told Labour’s MPs as he declared: ‘We are now a government in waiting’.

The Labour leader’s campaigning will continue, with plans to visit scores of Tory-held seats in a sign that the Opposition believes May’s government will fall and another election could happen within months.

He said Labour would remain on a General Election footing due to the instability of the minority Tory government and set out plans to visit 65 Conservative seats over the coming months.

Labour has also gained 35,000 new members since the General Election, he added.

Corbyn told the MPs and peers: ‘We must remain in permanent campaign mode on a General Election footing.

‘We achieved what we did last Thursday because we were a united party during the campaign and we need to maintain that unity and collective discipline in the weeks and months ahead.

‘We will continue to take the fight to the Tories and I will be out campaigning around the country in Conservative marginals in those extra seats we need to gain to deliver the government for the many that almost 13 million people voted for last week.

‘Now as Parliament returns, we have a Government in complete disarray still unable to reach an agreement, it seems, with the DUP and desperately delaying the Queen’s Speech and Brexit negotiations.

‘Far from being strong and stable, the Government Theresa May is putting together is weak, wobbly and out of control. This is a Government on notice from the voters.

‘Theresa May has no mandate and no legitimacy for policies that do not have the support of the majority of the British people.

‘We are now a government in waiting and we must think and act at all times with that in mind.

‘That is our responsibility to the huge numbers who voted for our manifesto last week: a programme to transform Britain for the many that caught the imagination of millions.

‘This was a remarkable result achieved because we stayed united and worked as a team and I have no doubt together we can win the next general election, whenever that may be.’

In a sign of the parliamentary guerilla warfare that will face May as she attempts to run a minority government, a Labour source said: ‘In Parliament we will be using every opportunity to halt the Tory programme which doesn’t have a mandate and use every mechanism to advance our own manifesto and agenda.’

The source added that some of Corbyn’s critics in Parliament were ‘gracious enough to point out that they hadn’t always had confidence in his leadership but they did now and that they had underestimated him’.