Where next for Labour party?

Now, amidst a long, drawn out and increasingly bitter leadership contest, it might well be standing on the precipice of oblivion – all because of the rise of an MP named Jeremy Corbyn.

Of course, it depends on which faction of the party you happen to talk to.

To his supporters, Mr Corbyn presents a new sense of hope, of reconnecting with the socialist ideals on which the Labour party was founded.

To his detractors, he will consign the party to espousing unelectable ideals and economic incompetence, allowing the Tories not only to enjoy their slender 12-seat lead but increase it vastly in 2020.

Few expected him to come anywhere other than last after he just barely cobbled together the support of 35 MPs – the threshold to get on the ballot paper.

But Corbynmania has swept the nation and now, whenever he speaks, there are often not enough seats in the room to cater for the throngs who come to hear him.

Even Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, seems to have been inspired by him – if the beard he sported when pictured returning from Australia is anything to go by.

The leadership contest has been marred by claims of 'entryism' by political opponents seeking to pay £3 to become registered Labour supporters under new party rules – giving them a vote in the poll.

More than 120,000 people have registered, along with 189,000-plus members of unions and other affiliates, swelling the electorate to more than 600,000. Now the entire election has been branded a 'shambles' by one of Labour's own Black Country MPs.

Dudley North MP Ian Austin has come under fire from supporters of leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn for criticising his record of rebelling against his own party.

And now he has criticised the selection process, which has changed to allow non-members who pay £3 to become 'registered supporters' to have as much of a vote as others.

"The word shambles would be too kind," he says.

"There is no qualifying period at all. You have to be a member for at least six months to help choose your local council candidate, at least a year to help pick your Parliamentary candidate, but anyone can choose our candidate for Prime Minister straight away.

"Hundreds of thousands of people have joined up – which is fantastic - but it is just impossible for the party head office or local volunteers to check them all. I know two local parties managed to block senior members of the Socialist Workers Party who tried to take part.

"With 400,000 new people, there could be tens of thousands of votes being cast by our opponents.

"I can see why people think mainstream politics has let them down. There's been the financial crisis and the expenses scandal. Traditional industries provided steady and secure jobs in places like this but disappeared in the face of new technologies and cheaper competition from abroad, and winning new investment to replace them is very difficult. Wages in some industries have been depressed by high levels of immigration.

"You can persuade people with easy answers, but I think my job is to tell people the truth: the problems are huge and the answers are difficult and complicated. Simple solutions would have been found by now.

"Labour only wins marginal seats in places like the Black Country when it persuades people that it can be trusted with their money.

"Jeremy Corbyn is clearly generating excitement on the left, but we need to be firmly rooted in the centre ground and I fear he would take us further away from it.

"He wants higher taxes and thinks we can print money to pay for a huge investment programme. Saying you can use money you haven't got to pay for things you can't afford just won't work and it won't persuade practical people in the Black Country."

Meanwhile Wolverhampton South West MP Rob Marris has decided to vote for shadow health secretary Andy Burnham.

But he says: "I did not nominate a candidate because none of them looked very inspiring to me. It seems to me that some of them are unlikely ever to inspire the wider electorate either.

"None of the candidates has ever had for any length of time what many constituents would call a real job – it's all been in and around the Westminster bubble."

The other two Wolverhampton MPs, Pat McFadden and Emma Reynolds, both nominated Liz Kendall, the shadow care minister considered by many as a Blairite.

Elsewhere in the Black Country, Mr Austin is backing the shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, as is Adrian Bailey, MP for West Bromwich West and John Spellar, MP for Warley.

Valerie Vaz, the MP for Walsall South announced her backing of Mr Burnham.

It will be September 12 before a successor to Ed Miliband is unveiled.

Then will come the task not only of building an opposition capable of winning the next General Election, but of healing the rifts that have now torn a party that recently believed it would be sitting at the cabinet table of 10 Downing Street by now.