A triumphant Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to reward Labour’s mass membership with more power over the running of the party, after he inflicted a thumping defeat on leadership challenger Owen Smith.
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He won 61.8% of the vote, a larger margin of victory than previous year.
Other Labour members, and most of the party’s lawmakers, want power – and think Labour can’t win it while Corbyn is in charge.
It didn’t work. After a months-long leadership battle, Corbyn won nearly 62 percent of the more than 500,000 votes cast by Labour members and supporters.
When pressed on this issue, Mr Corbyn continued to stand by his plan of giving members, unions and MPs equal say on the shadow cabinet.
Asked what steps he would take to reassure critical MPs, he said the return of shadow cabinet elections was “absolutely in the mix” although he declined to rule out the possible deselection of sitting MPs in the run-up to the next election. “The Green Party, being the largest anti-capitalist party in the United States, struggles to gain recognition”. “I am reaching out”.
At a Momentum event near the party conference in Liverpool, jubilant activists greeted news of the leadership result with cheers and chants of “Corbyn!”
His commanding victory is a major blow to Labour MPs who rebelled against him after June’s Brexit vote, many of them moderates who believe his socialist views will never be accepted by most voters.
There are claims that Labour HQ deliberately threw Corbyn supporters off the voting lists to reduce the size of his victory. When he ran for leader, few expected him to win.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Corbyn said he was “honoured” to have been elected in a contest that followed months of tension with many Labour MPs and urged people to “respect the democratic choice that has been made”. “As far as I’m concerned, let’s wipe that slate clean from today and get on with the work we’ve got to do as a party together”.
But with the Conservatives up to 14 points ahead in some polls, and the Labour leader’s personal approval ratings at rock bottom, analysts warn the party will not be entering Downing Street any time soon.
“Jeremy has shown he is not just the man to lead Labour, but the man to heal the divisions in our country and help build a better Britain”.
“This country needs a sensible progressive party, and it will get one back”, he said.
Mr Corbyn won comfortably in each of the three categories – winning the support of 59% of party members, 70% of registered supporters and 60% of affiliated supporters. YouGov found that Mr Smith had the backing of a clear majority – close to two-thirds – of Labour members who joined up before the party’s general election defeat previous year.
After the referendum more than 170 of Labour’s 230 MPs declared no-confidence in Corbyn, but he refused to resign, sparking Smith’s leadership challenge.
Ms Champion, who is shadow minister for preventing abuse and domestic violence, said that her then husband called police during an argument about the sale of their home.
“It was a hard campaign but the membership came out for Jeremy because they realised he had not been given a chance and had been treated unfairly”, she said.
But John McTernan, a former senior adviser to Blair, said he would not stop opposing Corbyn.
In a Twitter post, Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “Congratulations to Jeremy on his victory and commiserations to Owen”.
“Labour is not going to win any elections in the near future”, said Professor Anand Menon, of the Department of European and International Studies at King’s College London. “That is not enough”. Supporters of Mr Corbyn fear that this could be used to construct a rival power base at the top of the party.
As the Star went to press last night, Labour’s national executive committee was discussing a plan from deputy leader Tom Watson that would see MPs elect half the shadow cabinet.
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McDonnell says many of those who resigned over the summer have approached the leader’s office to express interest in returning.
