JEREMY CORBYN’S first speech to conference as Labour leader sparked a 2,200 surge in Labour’s membership.

Deputy leader Tom Watson revealed the boost yesterday as he sent delegates home from conference in buoyant mood with his own fiery speech.

Mr Watson contrasted the “great gathering of the Labour clan” with last week’s Lib Dem conference, that he said “could have been held in a broom cupboard.”

“More people joined Labour in a month than the total membership of the Lib Dems,” he boasted.

“That’s a fact — 2,200 joined yesterday alone.”

And former Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik could be about to join that number.

Speaking on Russia Today yesterday, Mr Opik praised Mr Corbyn and said he was considering joining the Labour Party.

Giving his verdict on Mr Corbyn’s speech at Labour conference, he said: “Corbyn’s proved something — when the going gets tough Jeremy Corbyn gets going.”

He added: “Maybe I should join Labour.”

But Mr Watson was more concerned yesterday with addressing the “waste of our natural talent is the lack of working-class Labour MPs.

“Don’t get me wrong, we need special advisers, but we can’t afford to be a party which only promotes people like that,” he said.

Labour must also reach out to “hard-pressed proletarians” like self-employed workers, he said.

In a final message to delegates before the chorus of The Red Flag, Mr Watson said Labour should end its “summer of introspection” and “kick these nasty Tories down the road where they belong.”