Deep schism over Corbyn victory

Soft-spoken socialist Jeremy Corbyn is the antithesis of Donald Trump.

But the British politician – resoundingly re-elected leader of the opposition Labour Party on Saturday – is riding the same wave of anti-centrist sentiment that’s propelling the brash US Republican presidential candidate.

Both are political outsiders who have unsettled their parties and energised their large fan bases, but whose ability to win power remains unproven.

Last year Corbyn, a long-time back-bench lawmaker, was the shock choice of party members to head Labour, which has lost two successive general elections to the Conservatives.

He has strong support among local activists, but many Labour legislators believe his left-wing views are out of step with public opinion, and tried to unseat him.

But Corbyn’s margin of victory is larger than a year ago, but he heads a party that’s deeply divided about whether it values political principles over gaining power.

Accepting his victory to a standing ovation from delegates, Corbyn pledged to work for unity.

Like Bernie Sanders, who shares some of Corbyn’s outlook, or Trump – who definitely doesn’t – Corbyn is a sign of how the political centre ground has eroded.

Corbyn spent more than 30 years as a Labour lawmaker, never holding a senior role and best known for his frequent rebellions against the center-left party’s leadership. When he ran for leader, few expected him to win. But he was propelled to victory by thousands of new members who joined Labour to back him.

For Corbyn supporters, it was a chance to repudiate the centrist ‘‘new Labour’’ vision of Blair, who won three British elections starting in 1997, but became too cozy with big business for some tastes and took Britain into the unpopular Us-led Iraq War.

Labour lost power in 2010 to Conservative-led governments that have overseen years of public spending cuts.

Corbyn harks back to Labour’s working-class socialist roots with promises to build hundreds of thousands of government-backed homes, raise wages for the poor and taxes for the rich, abolish university tuition fees and get rid of Britain’s nuclear weapons.

Tens of thousands more new members have flocked to Labour since Corbyn was elected, making it Britain’s largest party. He draws big crowds to rallies and meetings, and his supporters are a formidable force on social media.

His followers – dubbed Corbynistas – see Labour as a mass movement for social justice, similar to Spain’s Podemos, rather than simply a machine for winning elections.

But most Labour lawmakers and a chunk of party members despair of ever regaining power while Corbyn is in charge. They argue that his policies are too narrowly left-wing to win over undecided voters. And they fear a return to Labour’s civil war of the 1980s, when party leaders battled to eject hard-left factions and some members split to form the Social Democratic Party.

Although he enthuses crowds at rallies, Corbyn is a lackluster performer in parliament. He gave only muted support to the European Union during this year’s referendum campaign on whether Britain should leave the 28-nation bloc, a factor some think contributed to the ‘‘leave’’ victory that will change the country’s future forever.

There’s also frustration among Corbyn’s opponents that he is not providing strong political opposition at an uncertain time, as Britain negotiates its exit from the EU.

After the June 23 EU referendum, more than 170 of Labour’s 230 MPS declared noconfidence in Corbyn, but he refused to resign, sparking a leadership challenge from the little-known Smith. The contest was nasty, fraught with online name-calling and allegations that the leadership of the strongly propalestinian Corbyn has fostered anti-semitic abuse in the party.

Corbyn called Saturday for an end to ‘‘intimidation and abuse.’’

AP