LIVERPOOL, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Left-wing politician Jeremy Corbyn held on to his job Saturday as leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party.
He beat off a challenge from one of his former front bench shadow ministers Owen Smith. The result of the leadership election was announced in Liverpool where Labour is holding its annual conference.
Corbyn won 313,209 votes while his challenger received 193,222 votes in a straight fight. Corbyn captured almost 62 percent of the vote, a slight increase over last year's win, while Smith attracted just over 38 percent of the votes.
In his victory speech, Corbyn called for unity, urging members and all Labour MPs to work together to defeat Theresa May's ruling Conservative Government. He said Labour could win the next election whenever May decides to call it. Currently it is due 2020, but some commentators believe it will come earlier.
While Corbyn's win was a victory for grassroots party members, it leaves a big question mark over the reaction from the 172 Labour MPs who in June supported a no-confidence vote in Corbyn. Most of his own front bench team resigned as shadow ministers in another blow to the party, sparking the worse ever crisis for Labour.
The fall-out between Corbyn and the majority of his MPs erupted following the decision by Britons in the June 23 referendum to leave the European Union. Labour officially backed remain, and Corbyn was partly blamed for what was seen as a half-hearted support by the leader. Although Corbyn insisted he attended Remain rallies across the country, he became estranged from his parliamentary colleagues.
Corbyn had sat as a backbench MP for 30 years representing the London constituency of Islington North when he was plunged into the political spotlight.
Following Labour's dismal performance at the 2015 general election, leading to a majority Conservative government, Ed Miliband quit as opposition leader. That sparked a Labour leadership election, with Corbyn joining the race at the last minute as a 500-1 prospect with a next to nothing chance of winning.
The result sent shock waves across the political world when Corbyn won with a landslide victory. He won almost 252,000 votes, 60 percent of all votes. Runner up Andy Burnham got just under 80,500 votes, or 19 percent. The combined votes of Corbyn's three opponents would not have altered the result.
Backed by the pressure group Momentum, Corbyn's popularity has continued to grow at grassroots level. In this year's leadership election Labour MPs decided on a single challenger to give their camp a better chance of winning. That led to MP Angela Eagle withdrawing from the leadership race. But the result Saturday shows MPs have a political mountain to climb to unseat Corbyn.
