Jeremy Corbyn victory forces leader's critics to play long game

It has been a bloody battle, and Jeremy Corbyn has emerged victorious, growing his mandate from a year ago to take 61.8% of the vote.

A result that will delight the hundreds of thousands of party members but dismay most of his MPs.

The split between Team Corbyn and the Parliamentary Labour Party doesn't feel at all healed after a summer of infighting - just watch back the Question Time panel where Alastair Campbell and John McDonnell publicly traded insults if you want a sense of how bitterly entrenched the two sides of Labour had become.

:: As it happened: Labour leadership battle - the result

So what might Corbyn round two look like?

The left-winger has made it clear he won't be changing.

After the ballot closed on Wednesday, the embattled Labour leader told his MPs they'll be getting "the same Jeremy Corbyn that I've been through the last year and the last 30 years in Parliament".

And why should he? It was those 172 Labour MPs who backed a vote of no confidence in Mr Corbyn that triggered this all-out war - only to find themselves comprehensively routed by him and his huge support base.

Senior MPs I've spoken to over the past few days acknowledge they need a different battle plan - rapprochement.

:: Labour: Five things that could happen next

Mr Corbyn says he wants to offer an olive branch and some senior MPs - through gritted teeth - acknowledge they'll have to take it. His team told me on Wednesday that some will come back into the fold.

As one senior former frontbencher told me this week; the hostility to Corbyn has backfired badly.

It has given Team Corbyn an excuse for any failings - it's because of those nasty, unsupportive MPs that Corbyn is doing badly in polls, or losing by-elections rather than because of the limited appeal of the Corbyn brand.

It has also deepened the growing chasm with many activists in local associations against MPs.

"We've got to give him space to fail on his own terms" was how one frontbencher put it.

So, expect some to return to shadow cabinet.

Others - Yvette Cooper, Chuka Umunna, Hilary Benn - will instead chair select committees.

The bigger point is to get the parliamentary party functioning again as an opposition.

MPs have little option now but to play the long game - in the hope that it will be heavy defeats at the ballot box that eventually prompts the wider party to change its' mind about Mr Corbyn.

Don't rule out another leadership battle ahead of the 2020, but don't rule it in either.

MPs who believe Mr Corbyn must be ousted before they can seriously begin preparing for power, also admit the road back to No 10 could take a decade or more.

:: Watch reaction and analysis following the Labour leadership announcement on Sky News