These activists spent years fighting a Corbyn victory — here's what they're doing next

“Alongside that, we all personally felt a huge strain worrying about what might happen if Jeremy Corbyn had got in,” he said.

It was only once the exit poll was released on Thursday night that Mr Philipps became “aware of how heavy that anxiety weighed”.

He said: “The realisation that the British public had rejected the politics of hate that Corbynism represented, and done so unequivocally, was a massive relief. I don’t think I was alone in feeling like that either.”

He certainly was not. Emma Feltham, researcher and spokeswoman for LAAS, told the JC: “When I joined the party I’ve voted for all my life, the day after Ed Miliband lost the election, I never could have envisaged a situation where I was sitting waiting for an exit poll and feeling sick to my stomach that we could end up with a Labour PM in Jeremy Corbyn.

“The trajectory of antisemitism in Labour and what it means to members like myself can be measured in the relief I felt that the public had resoundly rejected a man who has led our party from a proud tradition of fighting racism to being investigated by the EHRC for institutional antisemitism.”

Though she expressed “no regrets” over her strong position, her commitment came at a price.

“The pain of this election is something that will live with me a long time, as I know it will many many friends and colleagues, from being portrayed as the enemies of the NHS to being responsible for the deaths of the poor, simply for refusing to be silent.”

That said, Mr Corbyn’s defeat does not necessarily mean an end to her political engagement.

“The road ahead for Labour to recover from this sickness is longer than they understand, and if they want this member to sit in hope and anticipation again for a Labour PM then maybe they should get in touch with her.

"She’s always been ready to talk, one day maybe they will be ready to listen.”

Equally disappointed by his party, Mr Philipps added: “I never wanted to celebrate a Conservative victory but the failure of the Labour Party to deal with its anti-Jewish racism crisis put many of us in a difficult position and I won’t apologise for seeing the rejection of Corbyn’s Labour Party as a positive for British democracy.

“Labour Against Antisemitism will be continuing our campaign to ensure that the party acknowledges the scale of antisemitism at every level, and will be holding the new leadership, whoever that is, to account. There is still a hell of a long way to go.”

Freelance journalist Nicole Lampert was motivated to get involved when she saw the “depth of ignorance about what antisemitism is — and the way people were so happy to dismiss examples of it in Labour”.

Though Labour has lost the election, Ms Lampert said that “antisemites remain within the party and continuing to expose them remains a priority”.

She added: “As antisemitism rises around the world — and is particularly a threat in America coming from both the extreme right and extreme left — it would be good to use the lessons we in Britain have learned in fighting against left-wing antisemitism to help our siblings across the Atlantic.

“I would also like to help in the fight to stamp out racism in politics altogether — it’s crazy it remains so endemic as we go into 2020 — and will be doing my best to support the Muslim and black communities as they push to root out racism in the Conservative Party.

"I see a lot of the arguments being used against Jews who spoke out — “it’s a smear”/ an exaggeration” / “you are weaponising” — being used against other people and it’s profoundly depressing.”

Others are not ready to retire either. David Collier was taken aback by the anti-Jewish hostilitiy in Britain when he returned here after almost two decades living in Israel.

He recalled: “I began to research antisemitism within anti-Israel activism. In 2015 I noticed a lot of those people I was following started talking about Jeremy Corbyn and urged their friends to join the Labour Party — which many did.

“I followed them and began to focus on what was happening within the Labour Party and the way moderate voices were squeezed out. I wrote several reports on the hate that had taken over and have spent the last four years battling antisemitism in the party.”

According to Mr Collier, who plans to keep fighting, “this tsunami was merely the first wave. The hatred is real and Corbyn is only a symptom — nothing more.

 “What happened shouldn’t have been a surprise. Parts of our leadership fell asleep at the wheel.

Mr Collier described Labour’s defeat as a “very lucky escape”, adding: “Make no mistake — Corbyn didn’t lose because of antisemitism — and we were lucky this time.

"We need to ask questions of those who allowed this to creep up on us. And we need to make sure our leadership never displays such complacency again.”