UK's Labour expected to crown leftist Corbyn as leader

Britain's main opposition Labour party was expected to crown radical leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn as its new leader Saturday, embracing the anti-austerity sentiment sweeping Europe but threatening deep splits ahead.

 Corbyn was greeted by dozens of cheering supporters as he arrived at the central London conference centre where the result will be announced at about 11:30 am (1030 GMT).

 Wearing red T-shirts reading "Team Corbyn" and waving signs saying "I Voted For A New Kind of Politics", they cheered when the 66-year-old socialist waved back at them as he entered the building.

Corbyn would be the most left-wing political leader in Britain for over 30 years and his policies of ending cuts and taxing the rich are close to those of Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain.

He has electrified the race, drawing support from students who had never voted before to older people disillusioned with Labour since it tacked to the centre under Tony Blair in the 1990s and led Britain into the 2003 Iraq war.
It is not the power of Corbyn's rhetoric which has made bookmakers slash his odds of winning the race to succeed Ed Miliband from 100/1 outsider to 1/7 favourite.

The bearded, grey-haired vegetarian has crammed in 99 campaign appearances, eschewing soundbites and usually wearing sandals and carrying a cup of tea.

"Many people are turned off by a political process when the major parties are not saying anything different enough about how we run the economy," Corbyn told supporters at his final rally on Thursday.

- Corbyn revolution? -

In a positive omen for Corbyn, lawmaker Sadiq Khan -- who nominated the veteran left-winger for the Labour leadership -- was elected as the party's 2016 London mayoral candidate on Friday.

Khan, who did not actually vote for Corbyn, comfortably beat Blairite former Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, boosting media speculation over a landslide for the Islington North MP.
Popular right-wing tabloid The Sun described Khan's "shock victory" as part of the "Jeremy Corbyn revolution" -- but warned his victory could spark a deep split in the party ousted from power in 2010.

"A victory threatens to plunge Labour back to the 1980s, given his hard-left views on nationalisation, nuclear weapons, tax and business," it wrote.

"Can Jez Do It? Yes He Khan," read the headline.

The left-wing Guardian reported that Corbyn was odds on to pull off "one of the most stunning electoral upsets of postwar politics" with all indications pointing towards a "heavy defeat" for his three rivals.

The paper also warned that some frontbenchers were unlikely to serve on his team due to "fundamental" differences that would "destabilise Labour policies".
His policies include spending more on public services like schools and hospitals, scrapping nuclear weapons, renationalising industries like the railways and involving Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah in Middle East peace talks.

The three other more centrist candidates in the race -- Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall -- have struggled to build momentum despite having far stronger support from Labour MPs.

"Corbyn’s current popularity has little to do with his own charisma," Andrew Harrop of left-wing think-tank the Fabian Society told AFP.

"He has triumphed because he represents a rejection of conventional politics and also because Labour’s mainstream candidates failed to inspire excitement or hope."

- Jagged rocks below? -

Despite the "Corbynmania" of his grassroots campaign, Blair has warned that his victory would split Labour and consign the party to electoral oblivion for the immediate future.

"The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched, over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below," Blair, Labour's most electorally successful leader who is now deeply unpopular over Iraq, wrote last month.

Some Labour MPs are already talking about getting rid of Corbyn as soon as possible after he takes power. "I would give him about 12 months if he does become leader," said lawmaker Simon Danczuk last month.

Eunice Goes, author of a forthcoming book about Labour's last leader, Ed Miliband -- whose resignation after losing May's general election triggered the contest -- predicted Corbyn would be "torn apart by his parliamentary party and the media".

Even if he does somehow manage to keep his party together, few believe Corbyn would be elected prime minister at Britain's next general election in 2020 as his ideas are well left of the political mainstream.
Source: AFP