Corbyn as UK Labour chief: A stormy nine months

LONDON: Veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn has had to contend with the Brexit vote and now an open rebellion during his nine tumultuous months at the head of Britain’s main opposition Labour party.

Throughout, Corbyn has used his support from grassroots party members as a shield against increasingly fierce attacks from Labour MPs and is likely to do so again following the leadership challenge announced by Angela Eagle on Saturday.

Here are the main chapters so far in the battle for the soul of the party:

Corbyn was elected head of the Labour party by party members and trade union members on September 12, 2015.

He beat his centre-left rivals in a shock result, that most observers thought would be impossible given that the general consensus was that the party had lost the general election in May last year for being too left-wing.

Then aged 66 -- he is now 67 -- Corbyn had never served in government or in a senior party position and was known as an MP who for decades had frequently defied the leadership, particularly under former centrist prime minister Tony Blair.

It was a clear victory, with Corbyn getting over 250,000 votes -- or 59.5 percent of those cast -- far ahead of his rivals amid an upsurge in support from grassroots activists and youthful “Corbynites”.

Hailed by Spain’s Podemos and Greece’s Syriza anti-austerity parties, Corbyn promised a hard left-wing line against David Cameron’s Conservative government and turned away from Blair’s influential “New Labour” policies.

Corbyn’s honeymoon period -- if he ever really had one -- was short-lived and the first rifts began appearing, particularly between his backers and diehard “Blairite” MPs.

Corbyn was forced to emphasise that he had a mandate from the party membership and rebel lawmakers should respect his leadership -- a defence he has stuck to.

Already involved in the struggle against the Islamic State group in Iraq, Cameron’s Conservative government wanted to extend its air strikes to Syria and called for a vote in parliament.

A veteran pacifist, Corbyn said he would not support a military option and emphasised the party’s position against air strikes -- but ended up leaving his MPs free to vote according to their conscience.

Parliament voted for air strikes in December, with strong support from Labour.

Corbyn’s compromise avoided an outright rebellion by MPs but it called into question his ability to lead the party. The signs of a rift were all too clear, with foreign affairs spokesman Hilary Benn openly contesting Corbyn’s position.

A few weeks later, Corbyn reshuffled the leadership of the party in a move that some Labour MPs denounced as “Trotskyist”.

Corbyn is a lifelong eurosceptic and voted against Britain’s membership of the European Economic Community in 1975.

Supporting a vote to stay in the European Union was never going to be easy for him, particularly as he had criticised the EU’s free-market policies for decades.

Corbyn did campaign for “Remain” but in a lukewarm and ambivalent way, according to political observers. His main line was that the country’s problems should be blamed on Cameron and not on the EU.

But the criticism got more vocal and Corbyn was accused of doing too little, too late and of failing to address working-class concerns on immigration.

At the same time, he was also forced to fend off accusations of anti-Semitism in the party.

Corbyn performed relatively well in regional elections and Labour’s Sadiq Khan won the London mayoral vote but the party’s support collapsed in Scotland.

As the results of the June 23 referendum filtered in during the early hours of Friday, a political earthquake began with Cameron’s announcement he would resign.

Corbyn’s enemies saw a chance to push for his ouster and organised a coordinated series of resignations from his shadow cabinet to increase the pressure.

In a non-binding secret ballot 172 of the party’s 230 MPs in parliament said they had no confidence in his leadership, against 40 who said they did.

Benn’s resignation was particularly personal as his father Tony Benn had been a political mentor to a young Corbyn.

Cameron joined in the calls for Corbyn to step down, telling him in parliament: “For heaven’s sake man, go!”

But Corbyn clung on saying he would “not betray” those who elected him and the Momentum group backing his leadership organised a series of support rallies.

Days of behind-the-scenes talks between Corbyn’s supporters and opponents ensued but eventually appeared to break down.

Angela Eagle, a former shadow cabinet ally, on Saturday said she would launch a leadership challenge against him.