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London: "It's genuinely exciting," says Aussie expat Catherine West, who served as Labour's shadow foreign office minister against the former government. "We won the battle of ideas."
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West certainly did win, hugely increasing her majority in the north London constituency of Hornsey.
And she was typical of many Labour members and MPs on Friday – celebrating as if they had won an election that, in fact, they narrowly lost.
Jeremy Corbyn has transformed from Labour's very naughty boy to its messiah.
Leadership challenge plans were scrapped.
But privately, some senior Labour figures grumbled they had ended up with the worst of both worlds: Theresa May back as prime minister, but Mr Corbyn firmly reinstalled as opposition leader.
West, a firm Corbyn supporter, expects such voices to be fewer and quieter in the wake of the election.
![Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn waves as he arrives at the Sobell Leisure Centre during the Islington and Finsbury counts on ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170723093010im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/j/m/r/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwojms.png/1497079159162.jpg)
"I am hoping that as a result of the success of the election, and the energy of the campaign, many of the people who were previously skeptical will come across and be more supportive of Jeremy's ideas and his approach," she told Fairfax Media.
"I think we are going to see a lot more unity. There is nothing like the pressure of an election to make people discover why they are Labour MPs."
![Celebrating like a winner: Jeremy Corbyn.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170723093010im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/j/m/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwojms.png/1500400085438.jpg)
It was difficult to know when the next election would be, West said.
She thought May was looking "weak and shaken", and judged the Tories' deal with the DUP had a lot of flawed elements that could cause it to fall apart.
![Jeremy Corbyn's rallies drew thousands of supporters as he took his message straight to the people.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170723093010im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/j/n/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwojms.png/1497079159162.jpg)
Labour had a lot to build on now, she said – an opportunity to flesh out the details of policies that were in the hastily-compiled Labour manifesto, and a chance to keep campaigning on the elements of that manifesto that had struck chords in the community.
Labour figures have genuinely changed their minds on the leader – including some of his fiercest critics.
![The leader of Labour, Jeremy Corbyn, speaks at a campaign rally in Islington, London on election eve.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170723093010im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/o/j/n/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwojms.png/1497079159162.jpg)
As recently as February, the architect of New Labour, Peter Mandelson, said "I work every single day" to undermine Corbyn, whom he considered "a sort of maniac".
"I was wrong," he said on Friday. "I am very surprised, an earthquake has happened in British politics."
He said Corbyn had been "sure-footed" in the campaign, and Labour could now build on his success – as long as the leader became more "ecumenical" in accepting the views of other members of his parliamentary team.
Deputy leader Tom Watson said Corbyn had "cut through" in this election, "he's opened the campaign up and he's won some arguments".
"I don't think I've ever known an election where so many issues were discussed," he said.
Carwyn Jones, First Minister in Wales, said "credit where credit is due" to Corbyn, saying he had galvanised the young vote in Britain.
Shadow attorney-general Shami Chakrabarti, whom Corbyn nominated to the House of Lords after she chaired a review of anti-Semitism in Labour ranks, called the result "an amazing reversal in a short period and I think this is the beginning, not the end."
Labour now had a manifesto whose values "we can fight for and build upon," she said.
She praised Corbyn's campaign but also said he had received "the fairest hearing in the broadcast media that he has had in two years."
As a result, the public got to know him and grew to like him, she said.
Corbyn was even praised by some members of the Conservative party, who said he had campaigned effectively and exposed Theresa May's flaws, such as her introversion and lack of comfort with crowds.
But others said it had been a Trump-like campaign that – in the words of Tory MP Pauline Latham – "promised anything that anyone wants … that's how Trump got elected and I think that's what Jeremy Corbyn's been doing."
Union boss Len McCluskey said the result was an "absolute vindication of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership."
He had led a campaign based on policies and a manifesto, against the popular theory that electorates did not respond to them.
"Did we really (lose)?" he said. "The Labour party won millions of voters last night, brought people back into politics, especially young people.
"It's a great night for Labour."
He predicted another election soon. Labour now has to prepare for government by coming back together and uniting in Parliament, he said.
Those who support and those who still oppose Corbyn will both find meat to chew in the election result.
On the one hand, he gave the party 41 per cent of the vote – its highest figure since Tony Blair's 1997 landslide. It was more than 10 per cent higher than Ed Miliband managed in 2015, and much better than party icon Neil Kinnock managed in either of his elections.
On the other hand, he inspired the Tory vote to even bigger heights, and failed to win government – getting only a handful more seats for his MPs than Gordon Brown did in 2010 when he was replaced as prime minister by David Cameron in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said Corbyn had not yet proven he was able to take the next step and lead Labour to a win.