The ranks of the East Devon’s Labour Party have swelled by almost 200 per cent in just ten days.

And it is all down to the popularity of leadership candidate, Jeremy Corbyn, according to constituency secretary Ray Davison.

He told the Journal that, before July 16, the group had just ‘a handful of members’.

Since then, more than 200 new members had signed up.

Jeremy Corbyn is one of four candidates vying for the leadership of the Labour Party alongside Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper.

Mr Davison said: “We are bigger than we have ever been since I came to the area in 1980. We are really busy now updating our records.”

Asked to explain the sudden rise, Mr Davison added: “Our constituency Labour Party was quick to support Jeremy Corbyn and I have no doubt that the leadership campaign has triggered an incredible national degree of support for Corbyn, which has reached even this constituency.”

He said that a Corbyn victory would ‘take us in a new direction, putting people, community and public service before profit and self-interest’.

Mr Davison added: “I would very much support the public ownership of the utilities and the railways and an end to NHS privatisation and I think that would be very popular indeed.

“We need to open up the blocked horizons of youth and return Labour to its great traditions.”

He said that the country and East Devon needed ‘a break from the bleakness and depression of the centre-ground.’

Mr Davison added that he had not seen any evidence that East Devon’s Tory supporters were signing up - pretending to be supporters of the Labour Party - to ‘disrupt’ the election, a concern in other parts of the country.

He added: “There has been a lot of genuine enthusiasm for his campaign.

“We need a different politics and Corbyn will provide just that, despite the snide attempts to undermine him. Seize the moment!”