Corbyn will stay on if beaten
LONDON: Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party which is currently languishing behind the ruling Conservatives in opinion polls, says he will not quit as leader if he loses a national election next month.
Mr Corbyn told BuzzFeed News he would carry on whatever the outcome of the June 8 poll despite surveys predicting Labour heading for its worst results in decades.
“I was elected leader of this party and I’ll stay leader of this party,” Mr Corbyn told Buzzfeed on Monday.
Some recent opinion polls have put Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives ahead of Labour by more than 20 percentage points and was on course for a landslide victory, a result which Ms May says will strengthen her hand in Brexit negotiations.
Pollster ICM said on Monday that the Conservatives’ lead was the biggest on record on record for any British election survey it had conducted and commentators, including some senior Labour figures, say Mr Corbyn is to blame for the party’s growing unpopularity.
Mr Corbyn, a socialist who has pledged higher taxes on the wealthy and a crackdown on powerful corporations, fought off a challenge to his leadership last September, only a year after he was first elected to the position with many of his own lawmakers doubting his appeal to the wider electorate.
“I’m serious about winning the election,” Mr Corbyn told BuzzFeed. “I know what I believe in, I know what I do.”
Mr Corbyn said Labour can transform Britain from a country rigged in favour of the rich to a place where people can lead richer lives.