BackJeremy Corbyn re-elected as UK Labour Party leader with 62% votes
Jeremy Corbyn appeals for the party to unite behind him, saying he has no doubt Labour can defeat Theresa May's Conservatives in the next general election
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London: Jeremy Corbyn retained the leadership of Britain’s Labour Party on Saturday after a bruising campaign that left the main opposition to Prime Minister Theresa May bitterly divided.
Corbyn took 62% of the vote, beating challenger Owen Smith in an election that was forced after Labour lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 172-40 that they had “no confidence" in Corbyn and resigned en masse from his team of spokesmen, known as the shadow cabinet. The result of the leadership vote was announced in Liverpool, northwest England, where party members are gathering for their annual conference.
The leader, who beat the 60% of first-preference votes he gained when he was initially elected last year, appealed for the party to unite behind him, saying he has no doubt Labour can defeat May’s Conservatives in the next general election. He called Smith “part of the same Labour family," though the challenger has said he won’t serve in a Corbyn shadow cabinet.
“In our party we have much more in common than that which divides us," Corbyn said in a speech after the result was announced. “Let’s wipe that slate clean from today and get on with the work we’ve got to do as a party together."
Polls and bookmakers suggested Corbyn would easily defeat his challenger as he retains the support of rank-and-file party members attracted by his “authentic" image and socialist anti-austerity policies. Lawmakers who pointed to Corbyn’s lackluster performance in the European Union referendum campaign and failure to effectively challenge the Tory government were dismissed as “red Tories" and “traitors" by his supporters.
“The left wing of the Labour Party are generally good at internal politics; the difficulty is that the moderates have lost the skills they acquired in the 1980s for dealing with militants," Ben Page, chief executive officer of polling company Ipsos Mori, said in a telephone interview. “It damages their prospects of being seen as electable. People don’t like divided parties."
Corbyn was in talks before the result was announced to persuade rebel lawmakers to return to his team but said he will not change his style or policies to address their concerns. What they’ll get is “the same Jeremy Corbyn who’s been through the last year, indeed the last 30 years in Parliament," he said in a BBC interview on Wednesday.
Campaign push
Corbyn attended 59 events during the campaign, including rallies in city centers of thousands of supporters. His team made 300,000 phone calls to Labour members and signed up 40,000 volunteers to support his leadership, he said.
Opponents contrasted Corbyn’s fight to keep his job with his performance before the Brexit referendum, during which he refused to appear alongside members of other parties and failed to attend campaign strategy meetings with his Labour colleagues. He was also criticized for not being tough enough on misogyny and antisemitism in the party.
Both candidates committed to spending hundreds of millions of pounds on infrastructure, taking rail services back under government control and protecting the National Health Service from potential privatization. Smith differed from Corbyn by promising to be a more effective leader, rebuild Labour’s image as a government in waiting and press for a referendum on any Brexit deal.
‘Hard-right edge’
“Now is the time to focus every ounce of our energy on exposing and defeating the Tories," Corbyn said. He described the administration led by May, who took over from David Cameron after the Brexit vote, as “Cameron’s government repackaged with a new hard-right edge."
The Conservatives lead Labour by about eight percentage points in opinion polls and Corbyn’s approval ratings lag behind the premier’s. An Ipsos Mori poll of 1,000 voters carried out between 10 and 14 September gave May a “satisfaction" rating of plus 27 while Corbyn scored minus 31. No margin of error was given.
“While 23 percent think he’d make a great prime minister, the difficulty is that 53 percent think that Theresa May is a great prime minister," Page said. “Labour’s chances of winning the 2020 general election remain as remote as ever." Bloomberg
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