Socialist Jeremy Corbyn to step down as leader of Labour Party after projected defeat in U.K. election

Along with John McDonnell, the would-be finance minister, Corbyn was one of the few hard-left members of Parliament to have survived the party’s modernization into “New Labour” under Blair, which abandoned a longstanding pledge to ensure industry was owned by the state for the benefit of workers, where possible.

Labour’s 2019 manifesto, a list of ideas and policies that British parties publish before an election, provided the clearest version of Corbyn’s political vision.

Utility companies, such as water, energy and transportation, were to all be brought into public ownership. Companies were to give away 10 percent of its shares to workers, who would receive an annual dividend and get a say on boardroom decisions. High-speed broadband was to be made available to all homes and businesses for free. University tuition fees were to be abolished.

Alastair Campbell, a former Blair adviser and a rival of the party’s leader, said the crushing defeat showed that voters had rejected Corbyn and the party’s economic vision.

“Labour has to face some hard truths — this was not just about Corbyn but the broader worldview and an economic plan that so many people did not believe,” he tweeted.

After a disappointing election result in 2015 under the center-left leader Ed Miliband, Corbyn stood for the leadership against some well-known New Labour figures and unexpectedly won. The party rules had just been changed to allow ordinary party members — not just lawmakers — to vote on who should become leader, which helped Corbyn to a landslide 59 percent victory.

Driven by Momentum, a campaign group set up purely to support Corbyn which amassed 40,000 members, Corbyn soon grew a huge following online and at a series of rallies across the country.

“Oh, Jeremy Corbyn,” sung to the bass line of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army,” became a familiar soundtrack at events, including at the music festival Glastonbury, where Corbyn was a guest speaker on the main stage in 2017, in front of tens of thousands of people.

His star rose further still after a spirited personal performance in the 2017 election helped Labour increase its overall vote share by 9.5 percentage points compared to the previous election, winning an extra 30 seats in the process, although not enough to claim power.

Corbyn’s tenure has been blighted, however, by accusations of anti-Semitism among some of his most fervent supporters, often tied to florid conspiracy theories concerning the state of Israel or Jewish bankers.

A series of reports, including from the Jewish Labour Movement, accused the party of not dealing with anti-Semitism complaints fast enough, a charge Corbyn flatly denied.

The U.K.’s chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, made the unprecedented step before the election of writing in a newspaper article that “the very soul of our nation is at stake.” Some 87 percent of British Jews considered Corbyn personally anti-Semitic, according to a poll for the Jewish Chronicle in March.

Other controversies include his links and alleged support for the IRA in the 1980s.

In a BBC radio interview he was asked five times by the Northern Irish radio presenter Stephen Nolan to condemn the violence carried about by the IRA — he refused to do so and repeatedly said he condemned “all bombing,” including the actions of the British army during “the Troubles.”

Corbyn faced strong criticism for an equivocal stance on Brexit — before the election he declared himself neutral in any second referendum — while the Conservatives scooped up pro-Brexit voters and the Liberal Democrats captured the anti-Brexit vote.

However, the long list of promises did not translate to electoral support, particularly in traditional working-class Labour heartlands where there is a natural suspicion of radicalism.

It’s not clear whether Labour will continue in Corbyn’s mold and try to win support yet again at the ballot box for such a transformative agenda at the next election, scheduled for 2024, or whether the defeat means that the rump of centrist lawmakers who openly resented his leadership could try to wrest back control of the party.