Corbyn wins landslide leadership election

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn [REUTERS/Peter Nicholls]

This is the second time that Corbyn has won a leadership contest in as many years, trouncing his critics who denounced him as “unelectable” throughout the sometimes ugly campaign. Both rebellious MPs and Corbyn himself claimed to have been subjected to online abuse.

The announcement this afternoon placed Corbyn ahead of his opponent by a wide margin, claiming 62 per cent of the vote in a convincing victory.
Although Corbyn has pledged to “wipe the slate clean,” he still has to decide whether to adopt a forgiving stance with all the MPs who mutinied against his leadership, in particular the majority of his front bench, or if he should stamp his authority after this second victory has had them silenced.

Prior to his victory, the Labour leader had said that rebellious MPs had “a responsibility to work within the democracy of our party and respect the leadership of whoever is elected,” adding that MPs “owe it to the millions of people Labour exists to represent to end the sniping and personal attacks.”

Jeremy Corbyn has long been considered a maverick backbencher by his party until he surprisingly swept to power in the party in a vote triggered by the departure of former leader Ed Miliband in 2015. He has since suffered negative media coverage and an increasingly unruly parliamentary party, while enjoying broad-based support from the party’s membership.