With Jeremy Corbyn's Leadership Victory, where now for New Labour?

It's difficult to interpret Jeremy Corbyn's convincing first round victory in the Labour leadership race as anything other than the utter rejection of what the New Labour movement was trying to achieve. Given Corbyn's heavy investment in the politics of protest rather than the politics of credible government (he mentioned in his victory speech that he won't be celebrating this afternoon, he's heading off for a protest rally over the refugee crisis) It seems inevitable that the trade unions that crippled the UK in the '70's are set for a massive increase in influence over the party once more, raising concerns that Labour may be an electoral dead duck for years to come.The Labour MPs that recognised the necessary changes to Labour philosophy to make them electable must be feeling pretty desperate having seen all of their reforms effectively destroyed in one fell swoop.

Tim Farron recently made an open offer to Labour MPs, and for those less than enthused with Jeremy Corbyn's victory, there are several reasons why this may be a good idea.

• Politically, New Labour philosophy is quite a good fit with the Liberal Democrats as they stand.
• The Liberal Democrats have just spent five years in government during a particularly difficult time with Britain's economy. Overall, I think it's fair to say that they did pretty well, having more influence on policy than their actual number of MPs would justify. The lack of credibility of the party as a party of government may no longer be an issue for that reason alone.
• A significant number of MPs moving from Labour to the Liberal Democrats would certainly make people sit up and take notice, and potentially make the electorate contemplate the Liberal Democrats more seriously as an alternative party of government, particularly with a significant influx of existing MPs that have government experience from Labour's last term in office.
• It's very hard to see how MPs that were heavily associated with the New Labour movement are going to hold much sway under Labour's new regime.

Certainly from where I'm standing, for any Labour MP that believed in what they were trying to do as New Labour, I'm not sure there's any real alternative if they hope to salvage anything from this earthquake within the Labour Party any time soon.