Shame on Islington North for falling for magic grandpa again

Of course, it would be disingenuous to suggest that Corbyn is selling a niche product. Candidates up and down the country won by tapping heavily into the Gaza vote.

But he is the full package for the quinoa class, the premium version of the organic vegetable basket – every hard-left belief packed into one box – and he knows it.

At a campaign rally at a community centre in the borough, amid an interminable ramble about war and peace, Corbyn conceded: “I eat croissants. And if you want to, then it is fine by me.”

He may have mis-read the country in repeated general elections, but no one can accuse him of getting Islington wrong. And by doing that, he has shown that his brand has life in it yet.

In a small, Islington-sized way, there lies the true challenge facing Keir Starmer: a successful government cannot merely seek to improve life for Britons – it must detoxify politics itself.