Now Wikileaks “is now moving on to the machinations of top officials in the UK Labour Party to tilt the scales against the membership-elected leader Jeremy Corbyn in favour of his challengers” the group said in a statement, released on 23 September – the day before Corbyn defeated challenger Owen Smith with 61.8% of the vote.
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Mr Corbyn added that Labour had more than tripled in size since its general election defeat last spring to become the largest political party in western Europe, with a “nationwide movement” able to win support for the election of a Labour government.
He has strong support among local party activists, but many Labour legislators believe his left-wing views are out of step with public opinion, and have tried to unseat him.
Corbyn told the room: Our party has a duty of care to our members.
Woodcock, who is the MP for Barrow-in-Furness, has been one of Labour’s most vocal critics of Corbyn’s leadership.
“We are in a weird situation where Conservative MPs are actually saying that it is awful this is happening within Labour, because no-one is holding the government to account”.
Following a charged and emotional election campaign, the official results of the elections for the leadership of the British Labour Party were announced today (Saturday).
But Corbyn’s victory will be a bitter pill to swallow for the majority of Labor MPs who rebelled against him after the referendum vote for Brexit in June, accusing him of failing to campaign hard enough to keep Britain in the EU.
I want to thank the more than 300,000 supporters who have given me their support and trust in this Labour leadership election.
He received 313,209 votes in the contest while rival candidate, former Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith, gained 193,229.
Asked whether he would accept a position in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet if offered, Woodcock said, jokingly: “I think it is unlikely my phone will be ringing”.
Mason said he would not take on a role in the party as he wanted to stay as “a journalist covering radical movements across the world”.
While Corbyn held rallies across the United Kingdom which attracted tens of thousands of supporters, Smith struggled to either set out a clear vision of where he wanted to take Labour or attract the support required.
Corbyn harkens back to Labour’s working-class socialist roots with promises to build hundreds of thousands of government-backed homes, raise wages for the poor and taxes for the rich, abolish university tuition fees and get rid of Britain’s nuclear weapons.
“We have much more in common than divides us”, he said of Smith and other members of the Labor party.
“Politics is changing”, said Emma Hamblett, a conference delegate from Romford, near London.
With an electorate of around 660,000 members, more than half a million people cast their vote. The contest was nasty, fraught with online name-calling and allegations that the leadership of the strongly pro-Palestinian Corbyn has fostered anti-Semitic abuse in the party.
Analysts say a weak and divided political opposition is a danger for Britain at an uncertain time, as the country negotiates its exit from the EU.
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At the end of August, YouGov predicted Mr Corbyn would triumph with 62 per cent of votes – getting the result exactly right to the nearest whole number. That seems a distant prospect while the two sides trade blame for the party’s woes. “It’s just a question of time”.
