Veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of Britain's main opposition Labour party on Saturday in a landslide victory that gives the country its most left-wing political leader in decades. The 66-year-old, whose policies have been compared to those of Greece's Syriza and Spain's Podemos, was named leader after clinching 59.5 percent of the votes cast by Labour supporters.
The new chief could divide Britain's main opposition party and he immediately faced resignations from the shadow cabinet amid warnings from party grandees that a Corbyn-led Labour would be consigned to electoral oblivion. In his victory speech to the party faithful, Corbyn slammed Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives for presiding over "grotesque levels of inequality" and for creating "an unfair welfare system".
As the win was announced in a conference centre in Westminster, supporters chanted "Jez We Can!" while centrist Labour figures looked shell-shocked. Corbyn later thanked his supporters in a nearby pub, The Sanctuary, where he joined in a rendition of the traditional Labour anthem "The Red Flag". "It's a fantastic moment for change in Britain," he told reporters as he arrived at the venue. The veteran MP has said he will oppose Britain joining in air strikes against the Islamic State Group over Syria and has been ambiguous on his stance on an upcoming referendum on Britain's EU membership. Addressing tens of thousands of people at a pro-refugee rally in London later on Saturday, Corbyn alluded to Cameron's reference to air strikes as part of the solution to the refugee crisis.
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