UK Labour To Unveil New Leader To Replace Corbyn

London, April 4 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Apr, 2020 ) :Britain's main opposition Labour party on Saturday unveils a new leader who will take the helm of a defeated and divided party in the midst of the coronavirus crisis.

Keir Starmer, a former director of state prosecutions and Labour's Brexit spokesman, is the runaway favourite to win the ballot of around 500,000 party members and succeed Jeremy Corbyn.

The announcement will be a low-key affair, with a planned special conference cancelled due to restrictions on social gatherings imposed to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Instead, the result will be put out in a press release mid-morning -- and candidates have been asked to pre-record their victory speeches.

Smart and studious, but accused of lacking charisma, Starmer has vowed to get the party back in shape after December's general election, when it suffered its worst result since the 1930s.

Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson triumphed by winning parliamentary seats in Labour's former industrial heartlands.

It was Corbyn's second election defeat -- the fourth for Labour since it left office in 2010 -- and he was forced to resign.

Starmer has now promised to unite the party after years of bitter arguments about Corbyn's socialist agenda, Brexit and the leadership's handling of claims of anti-Semitism.

"We get the chance to rebuild our party and our movement and, more importantly than that, the chance to put Labour where it needs to be back, which is back in power," he told supporters on a video conference call on Thursday.

Starmer says he is a socialist driven by the desire to reduce inequality, but his pragmatic approach has attracted support from centrists in the party -- and suspicions on the left.

His main rival is Rebecca Long-Bailey, Labour's business spokeswoman and a close Corbyn ally. A third candidate, backbench MP Lisa Nandy, is viewed as a long shot.