Jeremy Corbyn says he will remain Labour leader even if party loses election

Planning to stay: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
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Robin de Peyer9 May 2017
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Jeremy Corbyn has said he will not quit as Labour leader even if his party loses the General Election next month.

The hard-left leader set himself on a collision course with the party’s moderate MPs and members by claiming he will stay in his job regardless of the result.

“I was elected leader of this party and I’ll stay leader of this party,” he told BuzzFeed News.

Labour are languishing well behind the Conservatives in the polls, with Theresa May’s party enjoying a lead of just under 20 per cent in most trackers.

But asked about the ratings, which also give Mrs May significantly higher scores for individual leadership than Mr Corbyn, he replied: “Monsieur Zen is fine.”

If Mr Corbyn were to refuse to step down, it would be the first time since 1987 that a leader of the opposition stayed in the job after suffering a General Election defeat. Then, Labour’s Neil Kinnock remained after losing to Margaret Thatcher but crucially gaining 26 seats. Mr Corbyn’s Labour is expected to win fewer seats than the party had after the 2015 poll.

Left-wingers within Labour are desperate to retain control of the party and have been buoyed by moderate MPs who have quit or used the surprise June election announcement as a chance to leave frontline politics.

However, last year shadow chancellor John McDonnell - one of Mr Corbyn's closest allies –said it would be “inevitable” that both he and Mr Corbyn would both have to stand down if the party lost a General Election.

Labour sources refused to be drawn on the report. One source said they were "focused on winning the General Election" and that anything else was a distraction.

Mr Corbyn insisted he was "serious" about winning the election, despite the party's poor poll ratings.

"I'm going all over the country on this because ours is an election to win. We're fighting a campaign to win," he said.

He refused to be drawn on the negative coverage of his campaign in the media.

"I'm not going to spend my whole life complaining about it. I know what I believe in, I know what I do," he said.

"I never respond to personal abuse of me, because I'd rather get my policies across. By not responding it forces the other side to engage with the policy debate."

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