Hardline leftwinger Jeremy Corbyn elected leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party and celebrates with a rousing rendition of socialist anthem 'The Red Flag' in a pub

• Jeremy Corbyn is the most radical leader of a mainstream party in history
• His popularity - dubbed 'Corbynmania' - echoes the way Bernie Sanders has galvanized left-leaning Democrats in his bid to win the nomination
• 66-year-old won 59.5% of the vote - more than triple his nearest competitor
• He has ambitions to pull out of Nato and end US-UK 'special relationship'
• After accusing David Cameron of social cleansing, he sang The Red Flag 
• High-profile Labour MPs have resigned since Corbyn's landslide victory  

By Mia De Graaf For Dailymail.com and Matt Chorley, MailOnline Political Editor

Published: 10:30 EST, 12 September 2015 | Updated: 16:16 EST, 12 September 2015

Karl Marx admirer Jeremy Corbyn has been elected to lead Britain's opposition Labour Party in a move that threatens to further divide the party after a crushing defeat in the general election this year.

The 66-year-old, who has never run anything in his life, received 59.5 per cent of the 422,664 votes - more than triple that of his closest competitor Andy Burnham, who got 19 per cent.

It comes just four months after Britain rejected Ed Miliband, the former Labour leader, for being too left-wing and not looking like a Prime Minister.

Corbyn, the most radical leader of a mainstream party Britain has ever seen, will now take charge of the party of Tony Blair with plans to withdraw from Nato, block air strikes on Syria, and end the special relationship with the United States.

In his acceptance speech in London on Saturday, the hardline leftwinger accused David Cameron's Conservative Party of 'social cleansing'. He then led his chanting supporters to the pub for a victory drink and sang the socialist Red Flag anthem.

Scroll down for video 

Socialist leader: Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of the Labour Party, pictured in a London pub singing socialist anthem The Red Flag to celebrate his landslide victory on Saturday, winning almost 60 per cent of the vote

In the most extraordinary result in modern political history, the 66-year-old Marxist throwback who has never run anything in his life will now take charge of the party of Tony Blair with ambitions to pull Britain out of Nato

Delivering his victory speech, Jeremy Corbyn thanked the MPs who nominated him - many of whom did not want him to win. He also accused David Cameron's re-elected Conservative Party of social cleansing

In an extraordinary result, Corbyn won more votes than all of his rivals put together in the first round of the contest, removing the need to use the Alternative Vote system

His victory reflects growing popular support for left-wing movements across Europe, with Syriza taking power in Greece and Spain's anti-austerity party Podemos performing well in opinion polls.

Corbyn's rise also has an echo of the way Senator Bernie Sanders has galvanized left-leaning Democrats in his bid to beat Hillary Clinton to the party's nomination for the U.S. presedential race.

'Corbyn's victory as leader of the Labour party is great news, it's a step towards a change in Europe for the benefit of the people,' Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias wrote on Twitter. 

His campaign manager John McDonnell said it was the 'greatest victory for the left in possibly decades' and marked an end to the 'dark years' where there had been 'no discussion of socialism', but through which Corbyn had 'kept the flame alive'.

When the result was announced, 'the earth moved'. 'Another world is possible,' McDonnell added. ‎

'We want to bring this government down. We want to install in Number 10 one of the best socialists.'

Standing up, Corbyn apologised to a bemused American family whose pub lunch his supporters were interrupting - causing the crowd to chant 'USA, USA.'

Corbyn said liberties had not been 'handed down by the rich and powerful and royalty' but had come thanks to the efforts of 'ordinary people'.

But winning could be the easy part: While he was still addressing the leadership conference, the first resignations from the frontbench emerged as his critics warned he would be a 'f***ing disaster'. 

After 32 years as a backbench Member of Parliament (MP), during which he has voted against Labour more than 500 times, Corbyn must now try to piece together a frontbench team and demand loyalty from the parliamentary party. 

He will face big tests in the coming days and weeks on Conservative plans to curb unions, cut benefits and join airstrikes against ISIS in Syria. Conservative Defence Secretary Michael Fallon warned Labour was now a 'serious risk to national security'.

In a rambling but uncompromising victory speech, Corbyn repeatedly attacked the Tories (Conservatives) but gave little sign he is willing to tone down his extreme socialist views to win broad public support.

To cheers from his supports, Corbyn said: 'The Tories have used the economic crisis of 2008 to impose a terrible burden on the poorest people in this country.

'Those that have seen their wages frozen or cut, those that can't afford to even to sustain themselves properly, those that rely on foodbanks to get by. It is not right, it's not necessary and it's got to change.'

He warned: 'I am fed up with the social cleansing of London by this Tory government and its policies.' 

Punters were quick to place bets against Corbyn surviving as leader until the next general election, with thousands of pounds rushing in to bookmakers within an hour of his victory.

One Paddy Power customer put £2,000 ($3,000) on the new leader being deposed by 2020 at odds of 5/2, with a number of other gamblers placing bids of £100 ($155) against Corbyn lasting that long.

But privately senior Labour MPs branded the result a 'f***ing disaster' and warned he would not survive a year. 

Another MP said it was 'absolutely disastrous' for the party. He said Corbyn would be 'vicious' and move to deselect rebel MPs by flooding the party with the new supporters.

A former frontbencher said: 'I will give him 12 months. I can't see him lasting any longer than that.' 

Winning: Corbyn shakes hands with Andy Burnham, his closest competitor, as he is applauded by the other two candidates, Yvette Cooper (second left) and Liz Kendall (far right) who refused to give him their backing 

Winning could be the easy part, as Corbyn (pictured with competitors Cooper and Kendall) faces mass resignations from the frontbench with at least a dozen shadow cabinet ministers refusing to serve under him

Corbyn's Mexican wife Laura Alvarez was in the audience in central London to applaud the astonishing result

Many senior Labour MPs will quick to refuse to serve under him as party staffers are braced for a 'purge' of non-Corbyn supporters from the Brewer's Green headquarters.

Ahead of the announcement, one staffer told MailOnline: 'The mood is not great. I'm getting made redundant on Monday. It's the Corbyn purge isn't it.' 

Defeated leadership contender Yvette Cooper immediately announced that she would quit as shadow home secretary and return to the backbenches.

Shadow public health minister Liz Kendall, who secured just 4.5 per cent of the vote in the contest, is also expected to quit.

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt and shadow health minister Jamie Reed were also quick to confirm they would refuse to play any part in the new leadership team.

Hunt said: 'It is important to be honest about it - I have substantial political differences with Jeremy'.

Asked if he thought Corbyn would find sufficient numbers of MPs willing to be part of his front bench, he said: 'That's for his team to discover. I imagine they are working on that.'

Reed - whose Copeland constituency includes the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site - condemned Corbyn's anti-nuclear policies as 'poorly informed and fundamentally wrong'.

And Reed warned: 'No amount of well-meaning protest will protect the NHS, drive up standards, recruit more medical professionals or improve the accessibility of world-class healthcare to the British people. Only an elected Labour government will do this.'

Emma Reynolds, who has been an outspoken critic of Corbyn's wavering support for the EU, quit as shadow communities secretary. Writing on Twitter she said: 'Congratulations to Jeremy - he needs to space to build his own team. I will serve our party and my constituents from backbenches.'

Others expected to refuse to serve in his team are current shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker, shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Shabana Mahmood, shadow international development secretary Mary Creagh and shadow Cabinet Office minister Lucy Powell.

During the campaign, Cooper and Kendall both refused to work with Corbyn team, while Burnham insisted the party should always come first and was prepare to work with anyone.

However, shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna - a senior centrist who withdrew from the contest after a matter of days - issued a plea for the party to 'come together' behind its new leader.

In a post on Facebook, Umunna said: 'Now the contest is over, we must respect the result, come together and focus on providing the most credible and effective opposition to the Tories.'

Casual: Jeremy Corbyn, seen on a stroll through north London the day before becoming Labour leader

A Karl Marx admirer, Corbyn is the most radical leader of any mainstream party in British history

DONALD TRUMP MOCKED AFTER THANKING JEREMY CORBYN ON TWITTER THINKING HE WAS A VOTER

Donald Trump was this morning duped into retweeting a picture of new UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn despite the two holding polar-opposite views.

The gaffe happened after a Twitter user named Hamish, who calls himself a Labour Party member and 'professional troll', sent Trump a picture of the grey-haired and bearded Mr Corbyn.

The image was posted along with a message, saying: 'My Dad is thinking of voting for the first time ever for you.'

Moments after receiving the picture, at a little after 4am U.S. time, Trump retweeted it on his profile, adding his own comment, which simply read: 'Great.'

Since being posted, The Donald's message has itself been retweeted more than 7,500 times and favorited almost 4,500 times.

On the attack was Governor Boddy Jindal, one of Trump's rivals for the Republican nomination who has previously branded him a 'fool' and mocked his hair as being like 'a squirrel sitting on his head.'

Tweeting a picture of shirtless Russian President Vladimir Putin riding on a horse, Jindal said: Wow. Is there a world leader you DO recognize? Is this guy going to vote for you too?' 

Corbyn supporter Clive Lewis, who entered Parliament as MP for Norwich South in May, said: 'One of the things that Jeremy is about is about opening up the party, being more inclusive. Rather than the top-down 'Here is the policy', it's going to be from the bottom up and everyone will have an input into it.' 

At the height of Corbynmania the party was deluged with members, swelled by new 113,000 registered supporters who paid just £3 to get a vote, along with an extra 148,182 affiliated supporters and 105,973 full members who have signed up since May.

It led to allegations of 'entryism' by extreme left-wingers and Trotskyites seeking to hijack the contest in favour of Corbyn. There were also claims that many people did not receive their ballot papers in time to vote, leading to calls for the result to be delayed for three days.

But in his speech, Corbyn said: 'During these amazing three months, our party has changed. We have grown enormously, because of the hopes of so many ordinary people for a different Britain, a better Britain, a more equal Britain, a more decent Britain.

'They are fed up with the inequality, the injustice, the unnecessary poverty. All those issues have brought people in in a spirit of hope and optimism.

'I say to the new members of the party, or those who have joined as registered or affiliated supporters - welcome. Welcome to our party, welcome to our movement. Can I say to those returning to the party who were in it before and felt disillusioned and went away. Welcome back, welcome back to your party, welcome home.'

He said his campaign had given the lie to claims that young Britons are apathetic about politics, showing instead that they are 'a very political generation that were turned off by the way in which politics was being conducted'. He said: 'We have to and must change that.'

Corbyn said: 'The fightback now of our party gathers speed and gathers pace.'

Iain McNicol, Labour's general secretary, earlier insisted that the party had 'weeded out' people who had tried to 'subvert our democracy'.

Addressing the leadership conference, He added: 'We have run a free and fair election.'

McNicol added: 'In the leader we place our trust and on their shoulders they carry the hopes of millions in Britain and beyond our borders. It is not to be taken lightly or without a due sense of responsibility.

'Friends, this Labour Party is bigger than any of us.'

In a thinly-veiled swipe at Corbyn, he warned the new leader: 'Our leaders have come and gone through the decades.' 

The unassuming politician defied all expectations, including his own, to lead Her Majesty's Official Opposition

The 66-year-old arrived at the conference centre surrounded by people singing socialist anthem The Red Flag

Corbyn was bundled into the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster amid a media scrum ahead of the vote

MILIBAND TELLS CORBYN TO 'REACH OUT' TO HIS CRITICS

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband gave Corbyn his backing

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband gave Corbyn his support but warned he must 'reach out' to every part of the party.

He said: 'I offer Jeremy Corbyn my support in what is a very difficult and demanding job and I hope that people across the party will do the same.

'At the same time, I hope and expect that Jeremy will do everything he can to reach out and use the talents of people right across the party in the task of taking on the Tories and facing up to the very big challenges that we face.' 

He also aimed a dig at the thousands of £3 supporters behind Corbyn's surge. He said: 'I look forward to seeing them on the doorstep.' McNichol said he wanted them to do more than 'click a button' to vote in the leadership contest.

Economist Richard Murphy, whose 'people's quantitative easing' plan has been adopted by Corbyn, told the BBC: 'I'm going to be very pleased that ideas I've promoted for a long time are now, I guess, going to be part of Labour Party policy, and I will be delighted about that.'

Corbyn only scraped on to the ballot paper after gaining the nominations of Labour MPs who did not want him to win and was installed with odds of 200/1.

Andy Burnham, the northern shadow health secretary who had shifted to the left, was seen as the frontrunner while shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper presented the strongest threat from the centre.

After strong Blairite candidates including Chuka Umunna and Tristram Hunt pulled out of the race, it was left to Liz Kendall to fly the flag for moderates in the party – with little success. 

Union barons who backed Corbyn over his rivals could not contain their delight at his victory.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of the UK's biggest union Unite, said: 'Voters can now look at Labour and see, unquestionably, that it stands for fairness, justice, peace and strong communities. It is the party of hope, ready to take on a Government hell-bent on making life worse for ordinary people.

'The task now for all of us who support Labour is to back the leadership team, to unite, to turn to face the Tories and hold them to account. It is what the voters expect, it is the way back to power and it is the duty of those at all levels of the party to deliver.'

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said: 'Today people for the first time in a decade are hearing a message of hope. 'A clarion call that there is another way, an alternative message that it doesn't need to be like this. 

'People see in Jeremy a politician who has created a wave, a vision of a better, kinder world that works for everyone, not just a self-serving few‎. '‎Jeremy has ignited a spark of hope, a spark that had been dampened for decades. This is a chance to claim back the heart and the soul of the party and make it our Labour Party once more‎.' 

Outgoing acting leader Harriet Harman today issued a plea for unity, urging people across the party to take roles on the frontbench.

She told The Times: 'You've got a commitment to the party whoever is the leader.

'I've served under Michael Foot to Tony Blair, my first boss was Michael Meacher.

'The point is, it's a broad team and you don't decide you've got abilities and energy and commitment by virtue of who the leader is.'

Former mayor of London Ken Livingstone - tipped for a job under a Corbyn leadership - insisted he a is a 'consensual' politician who wants to have proper discussions about the direction of the party on key issues. 

'It will work if Jeremy starts to connect with people,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Trend? On Friday, the Labour Party elected left-wing Sadiq Khan to be London's mayoral candidate

'He is nice and that connects with people. Don't forget, a big factor in John Major's surprise win in 92 was the fact that people thought John Major was nice.'

The ex-MP said he has 'never seen him lose his temper or even be rude to anyone'.

'And he has an economic strategy to modernise our economy, create a better range of jobs and build homes to rent.' 

Shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray told BBC News: 'Whoever is crowned winner, we will unite behind him. That's what the Labour Party and the Labour movement does.'

Murray said that the almost 600,000 people signed up to vote in the election amounted to around one in 100 of the entire UK population, adding: 'The Labour Party should be very proud of the way it's been able to engage communities in this and the number of people who've turned out to vote and registered to vote.'  

The Conservatives have timed key votes on controversial anti-strike laws for this week to pile pressure on Labour's links to the unions.

Having resisted the temptation to comment on the contest for months, the Tories are preparing to take the gloves off.

Cameron yesterday warned victory for Corbyn would be bad for the country as it would break a consensus between the main parties on issues such as nationalisation, nuclear weapons, taxation and union laws

'The country is stronger when you have shared objectives rather than when you've got someone who wants to take us back to the days of Michael Foot and Arthur Scargill,' he said.

The contest showed that Labour had 'completely vacated the intellectual playing field and no longer, in my view, represents working people', he said.

Tee-total vegetarian nicknamed 'Jelly': Meet Jeremy Corbyn, the socialist hardliner raised in a manor who has voted against Labour more time than David Cameron

Labour's new leader may have been nicknamed 'Jelly' as a child – but his politics are anything but wobbly.

Born into comfortable middle-class wealth and raised in a £1million manor, privately-educated Jeremy Bernard Corbyn could have been forgiven for being a Tory.

But for the past 32 years, Corbyn has been the most uncompromisingly left-wing MP in the Commons – defying party orders more than 500 times, marching with rival parties against the Labour government and even calling for an uprising against British troops.

Corbyn at Adams Grammar School, which dates back to 1656, still upholds standards of education excellence

Privileged: Jeremy Corbyn's childhood home, Yew Tree Manor, which had two acres of land and outbuildings

During his political career even David Cameron has not managed to vote against the Labour party more times than Corbyn.

And yet the 66-year-old tee-total vegetarian finds himself leader of the opposition, demanding loyalty from 231 Labour MPs.

Born in Chippenham, Wiltshire in 1949, he spent his first five years in a five-bedroom detached house in half an acre of land in the picturesque village of Kington St Michael.

The family moved to Shropshire when Corbyn's father, David, a brilliant electrical engineer, changed jobs.

They settled into Yew Tree Manor, a seven-bedroom house that was once part of the Duke of Sutherland's sprawling Lilleshall estate. 

Corbyn was an early supporter of Tony Benn during the Labour party's bitter civil war in the 1980s

For the past 32 years, Corbyn has been the most uncompromisingly left-wing MP in the Commons – defying party orders more 500 times, marching with rival parties against the Labour government and even calling for an uprising against British troops

WINNING BY A WHISKER: LABOUR'S FIRST BEARDED ELECTED LEADER

Before today, Jeremy Corbyn's biggest victory in Westminster was winning the Parliamentary Beard of the Year contest for a record five times.

Keir Hardie and beard

In fact he is the first man with a beard to ever stand in a contest for the Labour leadership.

But he is the second bearded person to lead his party. The first was Keir Hardie, who led Labour from 1906-08 but was not elected to the post. 

George Lansbury, Labour leader from 1932-5, possessed a bushy moustache and sideburns but never went for a complete beard. 

Two Labour prime ministers have sported moustaches: Ramsay MacDonald, leader from 1922-31, and Clement Attlee, leader from 1935-55.

The house had two acres of land, outbuildings and a paddock and is now worth around £1.2 million.

Corbyn's parents met in the 1930s at a meeting for left-wing activists supporting Spain's Republicans in the fight against Franco's fascists.

His father, the son of a solicitor, grew up in East London, where he worked as an engineer during the war. His mother Norma was a scientist who retrained as a maths teacher.

Despite their socialist views, Corbyn and his three older brothers - Edward, Andrew and Piers – were sent to the private Castle House primary school where fees today cost more than £7,000 a year.

The future Labour leader and his brothers then attended Adams Grammar School in Newport after passing their 11 plus.

At Adams Grammar School, which dates back to 1656, Corbyn made a name for himself as a left-wing firebrand taking part in mock election debates as the Labour candidate.

Corbyn, already a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, refused to take part in the school cadet force.

'We were all supposed to join the cadet force at 15 and prance around in uniform every Wednesday,' he said.

'The big thing was to visit an Army camp. I was again in a minority and refused to join this thing. I was put on gardening duties.'

Despite not being very academic, leaving school with two E-grade A-levels, he went on to a degree course at North London Polytechnic – but left before finishing.

Corbyn has never deviated from his early opposition to militarism.

He wants to withdraw Britain from Nato, scrap the Trident nuclear weapon programme and slash the size of the Armed Forces.

The Islington North MP says: 'Why do we have to have planes, transport aircraft, aircraft carriers and everything else to get anywhere in the world. Why?'

Corbyn's uncompromising politics have even affected his personal life.

His fixation with campaigning caused the collapse of his first marriage to the academic Jane Chapman.

 Two years ago, Corbyn married 46-year-old left-wing activist Laura Alvarez (left) in her native Mexico

Jeremy Corbyn and his first wife Jane Chapman from a cutting in the Hornsey Journal from 1974. They split because he spent too much time on politics

Corbyn's second wife Claudia Bracchitta, an exiled Chilean designer who he met in the Eighties

They were councillors in North London but split in 1979 after she tired of coming second to his politics.

'He's a genuinely nice guy. The problem is that his politics are to the exclusion of other kinds of human activities, such as going out for a meal, to the cinema or buying clothes,' she said.

Despite his own privileged education, his second marriage then fell apart because of his strong opinions about comprehensive schools.

He had met wife number two Claudia Bracchitta, an exiled Chilean designer, in the Eighties when they were in the audience for a speech by Ken Livingstone, then leader of Greater London Council.

The couple had three sons, but broke up in 1999 after she wanted to send one of the boys to a top grammar school.

Claudia refused to send their son to an inner-city comprehensive and the marriage couldn't stand the strain.

She won the day, with their son going to Queen Elizabeth's grammar school in Barnet — nine miles from their home in Islington.

At the time, she complained Corbyn was 'first the politician and second the parent'. She explained: 'My children's education is my absolute priority.

'The decision [to send our son to grammar school] was made by myself alone and without the consent of my husband. The difficulties of making decisions under these circumstances have played an important role in bringing about a regrettable marital break-up.

'I could not compromise my son's future for my husband's career. I regret it is going to be difficult for Jeremy, but it was an impossible decision. Nobody really is a winner.'

At the time, asked whether the split was 'an issue of principle', Corbyn said: 'I feel very strongly about comprehensive education, yes.'

Two years ago, Corbyn married left-wing activist Laura Alvarez, 46, in her native Mexico.

Before becoming an MP he worked as a full time union official and was a councillor in Haringey, north London

He chairs the Stop the War Coalition, which he helped to found, and in Parliament he is a core member of the Socialist Campaign Group.

In 1984, he was arrested for breaking a ban on anti-apartheid protests outside the South African High Commission.

He was also heavily criticised for inviting two former IRA prisoners to Parliament shortly after the Brighton bombing. 

Comments (208)

Share what you think

• Newest
• Oldest
• Best rated
• Worst rated

 View all

The comments below have not been moderated.

 View all

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Add your comment

Enter your comment

By posting your comment you agree to our house rules.

Submit Comment Clear

Who is this week's top commenter? Find out now