Jeremy Corbyn wins Labour leadership

Jeremy Corbyn has won the Labour leadership heralding a dramatic shift to the left for the party and a realignment of British politics.
Picture: TSPLPicture: TSPL
Picture: TSPL

The hard left candidate lived up to his front runner status, winning the contest comfortably in the first round of voting.

Mr Corbyn’s defeat of Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall signals a radical move to the left and the rejection of Tony Blair’s New Labour legacy.

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Cheers rang out when it was announced that Corbyn had triumphed by an overwhelming margin winning 59.5 per cent of the vote. Of the 422,664 votes cast, 251,417 were for Mr Corbyn.

Mr Burnham was a distant second taking 19 per cent of the vote, closely followed by Yvette Cooper on 17 per cent.

Tom Watson won the battle for the deputy leadership seeing off challenges from Stella Creasey, Angela Eagle, Caroline Flint and Ben Bradshaw.

Mr Corbyn proved victorious in one of the most remarkable leadership contests in modern political history. Mr Corbyn’s anti-austerity message saw him attract huge amounts of support at rallies across the country.

But his calls for high taxes, his anti-Trident stance and his plans to embark on a programme of renationalisation have divided the party with several Labour front-benchers indicaing that they would refuse to serve in a Shadow Cabinet under him.