Evening Standard/London

Jeremy Corbyn is today revealed as the first choice of ordinary Londoners to lead the Labour Party — defying claims  that his appeal is limited to Left-wingers and trade unionists.
An exclusive  YouGov poll for the Evening Standard reveals he has more support among the London public than his nearest rivals, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, put together.
Moreover, he is more popular with the better-off ABC1 social classes, among both younger and older people, and those who voted Ukip or Liberal Democrat at the general  election.
YouGov found 46% of Londoners with an opinion thought Corbyn would make the best Labour leader.
Shadow health secretary Burnham came second on 21 and Cooper, the shadow home secretary, third on 20%. Liz Kendall, the Blairite candidate, trailed at 12.
Among people who voted Labour at the May election, Corbyn enjoys a clear majority with 52%.
That mirrors closely a YouGov  survey of 1,400 entitled to vote in  the leadership contest earlier this week, which suggests similar levels of support among members and wider supporters.
Fellow Left-winger Diane Abbott said the poll proved Corbyn had broad support across London: “I think it shows that what he says resonates with a lot of ordinary people, above all, life-long Labour supporters.”
YouGov today said it believed the late surge of new registered Labour voters this week was likely to have increased Corbyn’s share to about 57%. There had been speculation that the flood of applications, which crashed the party’s website, might have been  a backlash.
New rules have seen more than 120,000 people pay £3 to qualify for a vote alongside long-standing members and trade  unionists. But it has raised fears of infiltration and sabotage.
A moderate Labour pressure group dubbed “the Resistance” is being formed by two top shadow cabinet  members as Jeremy Corbyn pulls ahead in the leadership race.
Chuka Umunna and Tristram Hunt have written privately to Labour MPs calling on them to meet four days before the leadership result is announced. It is being seen by MPs as a rival to Corbyn’s Left-wing  platform and the start of guerrilla warfare for Labour’s soul.
Corbyn has issued plans to give more say over policy to party  members, who are typically more Left-leaning than its MPs.
The two frontbenchers stressed the need to “look beyond recent Labour policy prescriptions”, saying Labour had lost its political and intellectual edge. “The leadership contest has been tortuous, but has exposed the fact that we have failed to do sufficient political and intellectual mobilisation in this regard,” wrote Umunna, who is  the shadow business secretary, and  Hunt, the shadow education  secretary.
“There is now an urgent need for moderates in our party to do so, if we are to inspire hope in the party and the country again.”
The group, Labour for the Common Good, will meet on September 8 and include some peers, council leaders and trade unionists.
Contender Liz Kendall said a Corbyn win  would be Labour’s “resignation letter to the British people as a serious party of government”. She urged  supporters not to make him their  second, third or fourth preference.
But Corbyn made clear during a campaign visit to Scotland that he would restore the influence of  members and the party conference. “Labour has drifted into a presidential model of politics,” he said.
Asked about the new group, a Labour figure said: “Ah, you mean The  Resistance?” in a reference to French underground fighters during the Second World War.
But Hunt told the Standard: “This last election defeat felt like a cultural collapse — more so than in 2010. We need a thorough and searching inquiry which responds to this intellectual crisis and this project will play a part in that. Because the truth is it will take a long time — far longer than this  leadership contest — to develop a  politics which can renew the party and regain people’s trust.”
Corbyn’s 10-point plan unveiled in Edinburgh listed Left-of-centre policies, including an end to austerity, public ownership of railways and energy, rent controls and house building , scrapping Trident, and ending student fees. He said he offered “a new kind of politics”.
But Labour MP Ivan Lewis accused Corbyn of “failing to speak out against people who have engaged in anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Yvette Cooper launched a ferocious attack on Jeremy Corbyn today, branding his policies “not credible ”.
Other Labour leadership  rivals have seemed nervous of attacking Corbyn but she said he offered only “old solutions to old problems”.
Party big guns Tony Blair and Jack Straw also ramped up attacks on the Islington North Left-winger. Former foreign secretary Straw claimed Corbyn was “scared” of winning because his policies were  “economic illiteracy of the worst order”.  Ex-leader Mr Blair said a Corbyn leadership would mean “annihilation” for Labour.
But Ken Livingstone, the former mayor of London, said “embittered” Blairites were resorting to “appalling” personal attacks. He said Corbyn had made Labour more popular than at any time in the past 40 years.
Cooper spoke out on the eve of ballot papers being dispatched to voters. She said: “I feel really strongly — not just as a leadership candidate but as a Labour Party member that desperately wants an effective Labour government — that his are the wrong answers for the future .
“And they aren’t credible. That they won’t change the world . They will keep us out of power and stop us changing the world.”