Labour drew up plans to govern in case of a snap election while Boris Johnson was struggling to thwart a mutiny by his own MPs over summer, party insiders have revealed. The “oven-ready” policies were a mixture of fresh commitments from Keir Starmer and ideas from the era of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. Sources said it was hoped it would appeal to the broadest base of voters possible and make Labour “the political wing of the British people”. The manifesto was prepared before the conclusion of the Conservative leadership contest, so Labour could be ready once a new prime minister was selected. An insider recalled the previous disappointment in Corbyn’s office as Labour officials hurriedly put ideas together in the lead up to the 2017 election. “We didn’t want a repeat of Corbyn’s era where we were scraping policy ideas together across departments. We were so stressed and unprepared,” a senior Labour insider said. Labour accused Johnson’s government of “running scared” after No 10 blocked the party’s attempts to force an election in July. There were also rumours that the new prime minister could call a snap election but Liz Truss ruled this out after she narrowly defeated Rishi Sunak in September. Before a snap election appeared to be a possibility, Starmer said he had put Corbyn’s 2017 manifesto “to one side”, in preparation for the election expected to be held in 2024. Speaking at an event organised by the New Statesman magazine earlier this year, the Labour leader said: “What we’ve done with the last manifesto is put it to one side. We’re starting from scratch. The slate is wiped clean.” He has also said he has consciously dropped a number of his leadership promises because the country’s “financial situation has changed”. Despite this, he has been accused of still being reliant on some of his predecessor’s manifesto ideas. A source from the Corbyn-supporting Momentum group, said: “The ghost of Corbyn’s past is haunting Keir Starmer. As much as Starmer attacks the left, it’s no surprise that Labour’s most popular policy announcements, like rail nationalisation, draw from our programme. “Reheated Blairism may please the Westminster bubble, but it offers no path to rebuilding a broken Britain. Starmer could learn from Scrooge, repent before it’s too late and embrace the left as a partner instead of attacking us – at this point, it would be a Christmas miracle.” The new head of Labour Together – a network of MPs, staffers, members and thinktanks that was previously run by Starmer’s elections chief Morgan McSweeney – said the party should build a “coherent narrative” for its manifesto in order to take on Sunak’s Conservatives in a battle now likely to be in 2024. Josh Simons told the Guardian that Labour could not be passive and said there was “so much work to do” to ensure the party’s sizeable poll lead translated into an election victory. A number of high-profile Tory MPs have announced their intentions to step down at the next election, with many privately admitting their party will not win in 2024. But on Monday Theresa May said the Tory party can still win the next election if it shows the public it is on their side.