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Jeremy Corbyn Leads Way In Race To Become  New Labour Party Leader
| published August 12, 2015 |

By Thursday Review partner reports

Alastair Campbell has done his utmost to stop Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign to become the Labour party leader. His rallies of “Anyone But Corbyn” however, could have come too late, as the polarizing Corbyn leads the way according to betting markets and a recent YouGov poll that was conducted for The Times.

Regardless of the fact that Corbyn has never held a Labour front-bench post before, the 66-year-old MP, who is based out of Islington North is now odds on favorite after just one round of voting. As documented by the YouGuv study, Corbyn is likely to get approximately “53% of the first-preference votes.” This figure shows how dominant Corbyn has become with his closest rival, and previous frontrunner Andy Burnham a fair way behind on 21% of the first-preference votes.

Corbyn is a hard-left socialist MP, who has rallied against nuclear weapons; the Iraq war as well as being an avid campaigner against austerity. His campaign has been sniggered at by the bulk of Labour party members, who reportedly initially backed Corbyn to “enliven proceedings,” due to his radical and somewhat “unelectable extremism.” He was also ridiculed by the mainstream media in the UK with many questioning the validity of such a run for leadership.

One very useful bit of information brought to the fore by political journalist Paul Krishnamurty was the growing change in British politics. In his recent column for a betting exchange, he said that due to there “already [being] a large and growing anti-austerity movement, representing a widely held sentiment, particularly on the left. When it needed a voice and a leader, the unlikely figure of Corbyn appeared and he's riding the wave. Following the dramatic rise of UKIP and the SNP, UK politics is about to experience another earthquake.” Krishnamurty went on to reveal that although spread betting is usually the way forward in instances such these, he feels the recent YouGuv poll is right and Corbyn will become the new Labour party leader.

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