Election of backbench MP and anti-war campaigner means party now has one of the most leftwing, anti-establishment leaders in its history. Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the British Labour party, in a stunning first-round victory that dwarfed even the mandate for Tony Blair in 1994. Corbyn won with nearly 59.5% of first-preference votes, beating rivals Andy Burnham, who trailed on 19%, and Yvette Cooper who received 17%. The "Blairite" candidate Liz Kendall came last on 4.5%. Minutes after his victory, Corbyn said the message is that people are "fed up with the injustice and the inequality" of Britain. "The media and many of us, simply didn't understand the views of young people in our country. They were turned off by the way politics was being conducted. We have to and must change that. The fightback gathers speed and gathers pace," he said. The north London MP is one of the most unexpected winners of the party leadership in its history, after persuading Labour members and supporters that the party needed to draw a line under the New Labour era of Blair and Gordon Brown. Having been catapulted from a little-known member of parliament to leader of the opposition, he will now set about apologising for the Iraq war and strongly opposing cuts to public services and welfare. He will start off on Saturday with a speech to a rally in London in support of refugees. Addressing the party's new members who helped propel him to victory, he said: "Welcome to our party, welcome to our movement. And I say to those returning to the party, who were in it before and felt disillusioned and went away: welcome back, welcome home." Corbyn also launched a forthright attack on the media, saying its behaviour had been at times "intrusive, abusive and simply wrong". "I say to journalists: attack public political figures. That is ok but please don't attack people who didn't ask to be put in the limelight. Leave them alone in all circumstances," he said. In generous tributes to the other candidates, he applauded Burnham for his work on health, Kendall for her friendship during the campaign and Cooper for helping to shape the political narrative on Britain taking more refugees.
