LONDON �� Voting begins this week in the contest to be leader of Britain's main opposition Labour Party, with Jeremy Corbyn the clear favorite to keep his job even though he's lost the backing of most Labour members of Parliament.
Labour has been in turmoil since Corbyn, who espouses a traditional socialist platform, surprisingly won the leadership in September 2015. The crisis deepened after June's referendum on leaving the European Union, with pro-EU Labour lawmakers accusing Corbyn of not campaigning effectively to keep Britain in the bloc. Most of his shadow Cabinet resigned, and then he lost a confidence vote among Labour MPs before being challenged by his former work and pensions spokesman, Owen Smith. A Corbyn win would raise the possibility the party might split.
Smith got a boost on Sunday with the backing of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the most powerful Labour politician to hold elected office. Corbyn is "extremely unlikely" to lead Labour back to power, Khan wrote in the Observer newspaper. "Jeremy's personal ratings are the worst of any opposition leader on record �� and the Labour Party is suffering badly as a result," the mayor said. "I am afraid we simply cannot afford to go on like this."
Hundreds of thousands of party members and registered supporters will receive email or postal ballots starting Monday. The vote ends Sept. 21, with the result expected to be announced three days later.
The expansion of the party base with new predominantly left-wing members and supporters attracted by Corbyn has left it increasingly at odds with centrist Labour lawmakers. Some members of Parliament have complained about abuse on social media. Jess Phillips, who represents a district in Birmingham in the West Midlands, has suggested she may quit Labour and sit as an independent if Corbyn is re-elected.
The crisis in Labour is the worst since the early 1980s, when it was also riven by splits between left and right. At that time, four leading centrists broke away to set up the Social Democratic Party with some initial electoral success. The Sunday Times newspaper reported that opponents of Corbyn are planning to set up a rebel group in Parliament to coordinate defiance of the leader from within the party as an alternative to a breakaway if he is re-elected.
Befpre the start of voting, Corbyn announced proposals to switch more power from Parliament to local councils and regions, and to replace the unelected House of Lords with an elected second chamber. He also proposed increasing workers' rights and giving unions more power to negotiate pay deals with employers.
"I am determined to democratize our country from the ground up and give people a real say in their communities and workplaces," Corbyn said in an emailed statement. "That has to change �� so that the country works in the interests of the millions, and not just the millionaires."
