The way in which Jeremy Corbyn has been maligned and undermined by the media and Labour MPs is to me, as a Labour MP up to 1983, reminiscent of the way in which Michael Foot was treated as Labour Party leader in the 1980s. Then, as now, many were prepared to revolt against a left-wing programme and castigate the leader.

In January 1981 Labour was 13 per cent ahead in the opinion polls. However, on March 27 1981, Labour MPs Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rogers and Shirley Williams launched the breakaway Social Democratic Party (SDP), which was followed by a long series of defections by Labour MPs — carefully timed to inflict the maximum damage on Labour’s electoral standing.

In February 1983, Bob Mellish resigned his seat in Bermondsey in order to create a by-election in which the Labour candidate Peter Tatchell was shamefully abused for his sexual orientation and lost a previously safe Labour constituency.

Foot, a man of outstanding integrity and intellectual ability, a magnificent orator of longstanding political experience, was savagely and continuously abused by the media and some Labour MPs, who attacked both his leadership and his personal appearance.

When he went to an Armistice Day ceremony — and was actually complimented by the Queen Mother on the coat he was wearing — he was denigrated by the media for being inappropriately dressed in a “donkey jacket,” which it was not. The fact that his hair was not “short-back-and-sides” and other features were used to sneer at him.

The result of all this was that Labour lost the 1983 general election and only just avoided being overtaken by the SDP/Liberal Alliance, which received 26.3 per cent compared with Labour’s 28.3 per cent of the total vote.

Those MPs who undermined Labour in this period bear responsibility for the Thatcher electoral triumph which enabled her to inflict defeat on the miners, to cut back trade union rights, to sell off council houses — contributing to today’s housing problems, particularly for young people — and to lower living standards for the working class generally while the rich got richer.

Today, the left in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is much weaker than in the 1980s owing to the way in which compliant candidates were aided or parachuted in by New Labour and leftwingers kept out.

It remains to be seen what those MPs who supported the no-confidence motion will do if Jeremy is re-elected as leader, but they have already severely damaged Labour’s electoral standing by their antics to date.

They hoped to use the Oldham by-election or the May local election results for their coup against Corbyn but — contrary to their prognostications — the Labour vote stood up. They, therefore, used the result of the EU referendum — despite the fact that Jeremy toured the country and spoke at over 100 Remain meetings and the majority of Labour voters voted to remain.

If they continue to divide the Labour Party and attack the leadership, or launch a separate organisation, they run the risk of inflicting a prolonged period of Tory rule on Britain with all the hardships that will bring to working people.

It is vital to avoid a repeat of the 1980s, when a section of the PLP split the party, if we want a Labour government.

Although many of us on the left did not vote for Tony Blair to become Labour’s leader or support some of his policies, we accepted a democratic decision and continued to work for the party. Why cannot those on the right do the same?

At this stage, Britain desperately needs to move away from neoliberalism and austerity, and the socialist programme which Corbyn and his colleagues are advocating sets out the way to achieve this.

Our immediate task is to work for his re-election as leader and seek then to unite all sections of the labour movement in a campaign to win over the wider electorate to return a Labour government pledged to implement this programme.

If efforts to decry Jeremy within our own ranks cease, this task should not be beyond us.

• Stan Newens was the Labour MP for Epping 1964-70, for Harlow 1974-83 and Labour MEP for London Central, 1984-99.