I JOINED Jeremy Corbyn’s team with exactly an hour to go until nominations closed.

Four supporters were pacing the flagstones of Westminster Hall outside the Labour Party’s parliamentary office.

Eyes down and oblivious to the groups of sightseers on guided tours, they fired off texts and emails to Labour MPs.

Corbyn, who started the weekend on 18 nominations, had received numerous, and in some cases surprising, promises of support.

As the Star revealed yesterday, his team believed it was looking “very promising” he would reach the 35 needed to stay in the leadership race.

But with the office closed over the weekend, MPs traveling back to Westminster faced a race against time to get their nomination papers in by 12 noon.

Corbyn’s future rested on the dodgy reliability of privatised railway services he will campaign against.

John McDonnell MP, his friend and agent, hugged a clipboard holding the list of MPs who had promised their support.

He had happily ticked off eight more names by 11am, taking Corbyn’s tally to 26.

Ogmore MP Huw Irranca Davies, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion and Bradford East MP Imran Hussain were among those who arrived early.

If their support was a welcome surprise, what came next might have swung it.

Completely unannounced, former acting leader and one-time Socialist Campaign Group member Margaret Beckett arrived at 11.15am and became perhaps the highest profile Labour politician to nominate Corbyn.

When deputy leadership candidate Rushanara Ali and Jon Cruddas added their names shortly afterwards, things looked good.

Then with around 20 minute to go and just five short, the steady stream ran dry.

Corbyn’s team hit the phones again, scrambling for the numbers of MPs who said they would lend their support if the left candidate was on the line.

London mayoral candidate Gareth Thomas and deputy leadership candidate Tom Watson arrived — but insisted they wouldn’t nominate Corbyn until he was closer to 35.

Jeremy arrived at the office to find himself agonisingly short. “Fancy joining Labour for £3,” he jokingly asked a passing Tory MP.

Bermondsey MP Neil Coyle and Eltham MP Clive Efford took him towards the total with minutes to spare.

Finally persuaded to cast his vote, Thomas took Corbyn to within a vote of 35.

And, at the very moment Big Ben struck 12, Oxford East MP Andrew Smith handed over the papers that put Jeremy Corbyn on the ballot paper.

A nerve-shredding morning ended in an embrace by a pair of MPs, who may not see eye-to-eye on every issue but are determined to remain in the same party.