How Jeremy Corbyn transformed Labour – but failed to win over the country

Jeremy Corbyn has said he will stay on as Labour leader until a successor is chosen in the “early part of next year”.

Last night he said he would resign as leader of the Labour party – after the party slumped to its worst defeat since 1935.

This is the story of how he transformed the Labour party, but ultimately failed to transform the country.

In the hours after the defeat a deflated Mr Corbyn said it had been a “very disappointing night”, with support crumbling in former Labour heartlands.

Mr Corbyn acknowledged that he had to leave Labour’s helm after suffering a second General Election defeat as he criticised media “attacks” towards himself, his family and the party.

“I want to also make it clear that I will not lead the party in any future general election campaign,” he said as he accepted victory in his Islington North constituency.

“I will discuss with our party to ensure there is a process now of reflection on this result and on the policies that the party will take going forward.

“And I will lead the party during that period to ensure that discussion takes place and we move on into the future.”

Labour MP Anna McMorrin, who retained Cardiff North, said she blames Mr Corbyn for the party’s election defeat.

She said: “In the last few weeks of the campaign we knocked on around 15,000 doors, and a large proportion of those people we spoke to, the issue was Jeremy Corbyn .

In 2015 Mr Corbyn had been a back bencher and prominent voice on the left for thirty years.

When he announced he was standing he was seen by many as just another in a long list of left wingers taking a tilt at the top job, with little hope of winning.

In fact most bookies gave him odds of 200-1 and he only scraped into the race after colleagues begged more moderate MPs to put him on the ballot to “broaden the debate”.

“Well, Diane Abbott and John McDonnell have done it before, so it was my turn,” he later told the Guardian .

But whereas previous attempts to win Labour leadership contests from the left have failed miserably – Mr Corbyn’s campaign tapped into a desire for change.

Membership surged as people raced to join the party and back the unassuming Islington North MP for Labour’s top job.

A summer of packed rallies followed, and when the votes were counted Mr Corbyn had seen off the front runners and defied conventional political wisdom.

It wouldn’t be the last time.

Allies praised his front line campaigning style, shaped by years of grassroots activism, for delivering the victory.

For his entire adult life the Labour MP had taken to the streets to back the causes he believed in.

He joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as a schoolboy and was chair of the Stop the War coalition in the run up to the invasion of Iraq.

Famously he had served on the National Executive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, and was arrested in 1984 for protesting outside South Africa House.

Mr Corbyn’s championing of causes often put him on the wrong side of the Labour leadership – particularly under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

His activism in this time also saw him champion Irish republicanism and Palestinian statehood.

It was this campaigning which would later see his opponents accused of supporting the IRA and violent groups in the Middle East.

A serial rebel he was viewed by colleagues as a fringe figure – and it led many of them to question if was fit to lead the party.

What followed was brutal fight for the soul of the Labour party.

Corbyn’s supporters rallied around the remnants of his campaign, creating Momentum to reshape the Labour party in his image and organise the those who had joined the party to support him.

Following Leave winning the EU referendum in 2016, simmering resentment from MPs turned into open rebellion.

In June, 44 Labour front benchers resigned in as many hours.

Prominent moderates like Hilary Benn, Tom Watson and Angela Eagle called on Mr Corbyn to quit.

He refused and the ugly row became a leadership challenge with Owen Smith throwing down the gauntlet.

That second race confirmed Mr Corbyn’s grip on the party – he won 62% of the vote.

Supporters soon took over the party’s ruling National Executive Committee – and saw gains in constituency party’s across the country.

A trio of poor by-election performances followed, but Mr Corbyn’s internal critics were a spent force.

By the time Theresa May called the snap general election in 2017, many had written Mr Corbyn off.

Nothing before the election suggested that Mrs May was about to throw away her majority.

But a disastrous manifesto launch for the Tories saw them stumble in that campaign. .

It was the opportunity Mr Corbyn’s team needed.

A radical manifesto filled with popular policies lined up with youthful enthusiasm for the Labour leader.

Instead of disastrous defeat the Labour leader made moderate gains.

His critics pointed out that he did not win the election.

But to many of his allies this was the all the proof they needed that Corbynism could win votes – and maybe even an election.

These hopes were dashed last night.

Labour suffered its worst general election results since 1935 with dozens of seats that the party had held for a lifetime going Tory blue.

The defeat was in many ways shaped by Mr Cobyn’s politics – his flaws and his blindspots.

Once a passionate campaigner for limiting Britain’s involvement in the EU, he led a party dominated by Remainers.

The party’s supporters though were split.

Months of uncertainty followed as the party battled over its Brexit position – would it back a second referendum or stay neutral?

An earlier fudge had seen them through the 2017 election, but as pressure built around the issue, and Boris Johnson made it his focus, their policy left neither Leavers nor Remainers convinced.

His failure to decisively take control of the conversation around anti-Semitism in the party, alongside his previous support for Irish republicans, saw him easily stereotyped.

As defeat and defeat crumbled Labour’s red wall last night MPs were quick to point to his personal failures.

Ruth Smeeth,said: “His personal actions have delivered this result for my constituents and for swathes of the country overnight.”

Toby Perkins said the result was due to Corbyn’s “monumental unpopularity”.

His successor, whoever that is, will inherit a party he has shaped – but a country that has decisively rejected his offer.