JEREMY Corbyn yesterday buried the remains of Tony Blair's New Labour under an electoral landslide, as his uncompromising anti-austerity message swept him to victory in his party’s leadership race.
The 66-year-old left-winger secured an overwhelming mandate to succeed Ed Miliband as Labour leader, winning on the first round of the ballot with 59.5 per cent of the vote.
A low-profile backbencher since 1983, and a serial Westminster rebel, Corbyn must now try to unite a party simmering with feuds between admirers of Blair and the union-backed left.
However within minutes of the result being announced amid cries of “Jez we can” at a special conference in London, the shadow health minister Jamie Reed resigned in protest.
Rachel Reeves at the work and pensions brief and Tristram Hunt at education also quit the front bench, as did Yvette Cooper, who had entered the race as shadow home secretary.
However the scale of Corbyn’s win - 251,417 first preference votes from 422,664 cast on a 76 per cent turnout - is likely to dampen down previous talk of a coup by centre-right MPs.
His nearest rival, Andy Burnham, polled 19 per cent, Cooper was third with 17 per cent, and Kendall, the most overtly Blairite candidate, received a humiliating 4.5 per cent.
Kendall, who had been shadow care minister, also announced a return to the backbenches.
Corbyn won all three sections of the party - members, affiliated and union voters, and those who paid £3 to register as supporters - taking 85 per cent of the latter category.
Tom Watson, who like Corbyn had major union backing, was elected deputy leader.
The Tories said Corbyn’s opposition to Trident and plans for investment in public services made him a threat to both national security and the economy.
In his acceptance speech, the Islington North MP tried to reach out to all parts of the party, and said the leadership campaign had shown Labour to be “passionate, democratic, diverse, united and absolutely determined in our quest for a decent and better society”.
He underlined his desire to take the fight to the Tory government, starting with opposition its efforts to “shackle unions” in a new Trade Union Bill coming to the Commons tomorrow.
Highlighting his opposition to welfare cuts, he said people were “fed up with the inequality, the injustice and the unnecessary poverty” under the current government.
He also repeated complaints about the right-wing press which has been relentless in its attack on him.
Corbyn is expected to appoint his shadow cabinet over the weekend, with the roles of shadow chancellor and chief whip seen as critical to the party’s credibility and stability.
Tory Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said: “Labour are now a serious risk to our nation’s security, our economy’s security and your family’s security. Whether it’s weakening our defences, raising taxes on jobs and earnings, racking up more debt and welfare or driving up the cost of living by printing money – Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party will hurt working people.”
Congratulating Corbyn on his win, Nicola Sturgeon said she hoped the SNP would “work constructively with him in a progressive alliance against Tory austerity”.
However she added he led “a deeply, and very bitterly, divided party” and if Labour looked like it would lose the 2020 election, it would fuel demands for independence.
Former First Minister Henry McLeish said Corbyn should work with Scottish Labour on “an alternative to the current position on devolution, push for home rule”.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, who previously attacked Corbyn, but was present for his victory, said the result showed “politics has changed”.
She said: “I hope those lost to us in the past will start to listen again as both Jeremy and I put forward radical policies.”
Left-wing MSP Neil Findlay, who chaired Corbyn’s campaign in Scotland, was markedly more enthusiastic, calling it “a fantastic result for Labour in Scotland and throughout the UK”.
Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson said many in Labour would be “in despair” at the retreat to a “hard-left comfort zone”, and urged Corbyn against deals with the SNP that risked the Union.
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said Corbyn’s leadership meant “a return to the damaging see-saw politics of the past, with a Conservative government screeching further to the right and a Labour opposition returning to the extreme left politics politics of the 1970s”.
Scottish Green co-convener Patrick Harvie predicted “those who hold power behind the scenes within Labour” would undermine Corbyn and stop the party “returning to its roots”.
Scottish Socialist Colin Fox said the result was a humiliation for New Labour’s “political has-beens like Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell and John McTernan,” while RISE, Scotland’s Left Alliance, called it a “stunning defeat for Blairism and New Labour”.
Press baron Rupert Murdoch tweeted: “Hard left Corbyn wins in landslide, goes on TV singing Red Flag. How did Cameron get this lucky? Hope he doesn't slack off.”
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