The surprise rise and fall of a ‘genuine’ rebel leader

JEREMY Corbyn was the break-out candidate who defied all the odds to up-end the Labour establishment.

The veteran rebel was put forward for the leadership by fellow left-wingers as it was seen as “his turn” to stand after Ed Miliband quit in the wake of taking the party to defeat in 2015 against David Cameron.

But Mr Corbyn appeared to catch a mood on the centre left as members insisted they needed a more “genuine” leader.

In September 2015 Mr Corbyn romped home on the first ballot with 59.5% of the vote.

The bulk of the parliamentary Labour Party was perplexed, the majority of the rapidly swelling membership was delighted.

Tensions soon exploded over the June 2016 Brexit referendum.

In the aftermath of the surprise Brexit vote, Mr Corbyn faced a shadow cabinet rebellion led by then-foreign affairs spokesman Hilary Benn.

Mr Corbyn moved quickly to sack the son of Tony Benn, which led to a mass exodus from the shadow cabinet.

The Labour leader appointed supporters to fill the spaces as he saw off a challenge to his leadership by Owen Smith, and then faced Theresa May’s snap general election in June 2017.

The party received its biggest election upsurge since 1945 and helped deprive Mrs May of a parliamentary majority.

The Labour leader tried to walk a tightrope on Brexit in the run-up to the snap December 2019 general election, but Boris Johnson’s “get Brexit done” message smashed all before it, burying Mr Corbyn’s hopes.