JEREMY CORBYN’S support for public ownership should not be sneered at, campaigners said yesterday after the Labour leadership front-runner suggested the party could consider reinstating its original clause four.

Mr Corbyn told the Independent on Sunday that Labour “should talk about what the objectives of the party are,” casually suggesting the potential for rewriting the famous rule-book paragraph which sets out its aims.

He said it could either revert to its traditional wording, which referred to the “common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange,” or be written in a new format.

The text of clause four was altered by Tony Blair to instead define the party by the belief that “by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone,” in a defining moment in the foundation of New Labour.

Mr Corbyn’s opponent Liz Kendall, who has previously boasted of her desire for a “clause four moment” of similar significance, said it was proof that Mr Corbyn’s agenda was “Bennism reheated.”

And fellow candidate Yvette Cooper suggested the leftwinger would take Labour back to “the days of British Leyland.”

Interviewed on the BBC, former deputy prime minister John Prescott said reforms should be initiated by the party rank-and-file and not the leader.

But a spokesman for Mr Corbyn insisted he would not impose top-down reforms.

“Jeremy is not saying he wants to return to clause four, nor does he want a big ‘moment’ such as that,” he said.

“He says we need some forms of discussion about public ownership objectives for the 21st century.”

Campaign for Public Ownership director Neil Clark said commentators should not get “hung up” on the technicalities of Labour’s rule book.

“It’s got to be welcomed that now the potential favourite to win the Labour leadership is saying we need to think about public ownership,” he told the Star.

“He’s already said the railways and the utilities [could be nationalised], in line with the views of the vast majority of the public. The reaction from the elite commentators is so revealing: here’s a man calling for something the majority of people want.”