page_title: Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn
section_title: 2016 leadership election
hierarchical_section_title: Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn / Summer 2016 leadership challenge / 2016 leadership election
caption_attribution_description: English: Corbyn speaking at a leadership election rally to his supporters in August 2016
context_page_description: The Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn began when Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Leader of the UK Labour Party in September 2015, following the resignation of Ed Miliband after Labour's defeat at the 2015 general election. Disillusioned with a lack of a left-wing voice in the 2015 leadership contest, Corbyn stood on an anti-austerity ticket. Of the candidates who stood, Corbyn received the fewest parliamentary nominations. Many who nominated him said they had done so not to support his candidacy, but to widen the debate by including a socialist voice. However, Corbyn soon became the frontrunner and was elected with a landslide of 59%.
  Corbyn appointed John McDonnell as Shadow Chancellor and promoted several female backbenchers, forming a Shadow Cabinet that for the first time had more women than men. Under Corbyn's leadership, Labour shifted to the left from the centre-ground. In November 2015, he voted against British military involvement in the Syrian Civil War. He also opposed the renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system and apologised for the Blair ministry taking the UK into the Iraq War.
context_section_description: The division between Corbyn and the Labour parliamentary party continued. On 4 July 2016 Angela Eagle, who had recently resigned from his shadow cabinet, repeated that she was ready to mount the primary challenge to his leadership. In an interview with Sky News, she said, "I have the support to run and resolve this impasse and I will do so if Jeremy doesn't take action soon". On the same day, Corbyn defended his leadership based on his mandate from the first leadership election, writing in the Sunday Mirror: “I am ready to reach out to Labour MPs who didn’t accept my election and oppose my leadership – and work with the whole party to provide the alternative the country needs.” Eagle formally launched her leadership campaign on 11 July 2016.
  After news reports that Eagle's office had been vandalised on 11 July 2016, and of threats and abuse to other MPs, including death threats to himself, Corbyn said: "It is extremely concerning that Angela Eagle has been the victim of a threatening act" and called for "respect and dignity, even where there is disagreement."
  Late on 12 July 2016, following a dispute as to whether the elected leader would need nominations in an election as a "challenger" to their own leadership, the Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) resolved that Corbyn, as the incumbent leader, had an automatic right to be on the ballot. At that same meeting, Labour's NEC decided that members needed to have signed up on or before 12 January 2016 to be eligible to vote (nearly 130,000 people had become Labour Party members alone since the EU referendum alone, would not be allowed to vote). The NEC did however decide that "registered supporters" would be entitled to vote, for its next leader of the Labour Party, if they paid a one off fee of £25. 184,541 people subsequently paid the one-off fee to become "registered supporters" of the party during the two-day window in July. Owen Smith said "in last 48 hours more people have registered as Labour supporters than the entire membership of the Tory party". Along with the 388,000 people who were full members six months ago, plus the 147,134 (July 2015 figure) affiliated supporters (mostly from affiliated trade unions and socialist societies), this means that over 700,000 will have a vote in the leadership election. The decision to retain Corbyn on the ballot was contested unsuccessfully in a High Court action brought by Labour donor Michael Foster.
  On 13 July, Owen Smith entered the Labour Party leadership race. Subsequently, on 19 July, Eagle withdrew and offered her endorsement to Smith.
  The results of an Ipsos MORI survey polling the British public as a whole, and released on 14 July, indicated that 66% of those surveyed believed that the Labour party needed a new leader before the then-scheduled 2020 election. In addition, only 23 percent believed that Corbyn would make a good Prime Minister, while Theresa May had an approval rating of 55 percent. An Opinium/Observer poll on 23 July found that among those who say they back Labour, 54% supported Corbyn against just 22% who would prefer Smith. Some 20% said they were undecided and 4% said they did not intend to vote. When voters were asked who they thought would be the best prime minister – Corbyn or May – among Labour supporters, 48% said Corbyn and 22% May, whilst among all UK voters, 52% chose May and just 16% were for Corbyn.
  According to Andrew Rawnsley, The Observer's political columnist: "The truth is that Labour MPs would not have acted this summer but for the Brexit vote. It was the shock of that, combined with collective horror about Mr Corbyn’s response to it, which finally pushed them into despairing action". On 24 July 2016, he wrote that "much of that selectorate is wildly unrepresentative of the voters that Labour must persuade if the party is to survive as a plausible opposition, never mind become a viable competitor for power".
  More than 40 female Labour MPs, in an open letter during the campaign in July 2016, called on Corbyn to deal with issues relating to online abuse, and criticised him for
caption: Jeremy Corbyn leadership election rally, August 2016
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