Left-wing veteran and surprise front-runner Jeremy Corbyn has almost doubled his lead in the race to win the leadership of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, according to a new poll.<br /><br /> Corbyn, 66, started the contest as a rank outsider who barely managed to get his name on the ballot.<br /><br /> But he has soared ahead of three other, more centrist, rivals and a new YouGov opinion poll for the Times newspaper gives him 53 percent of the first preference vote – up 10 points since a previous poll in July.<br /><br /> That suggests that Corbyn could win in the first round of voting. His nearest rival, Andy Burnham, is trailing on 21 percent.<br /><br /> Corbyn wants to return the centre-left party to its socialist roots and has already said he would take the railway and energy networks back into public ownership if he won power.<br /><br /> He is much further to the left than last Labour leader Ed Miliband who was himself criticised by some for being too left-wing – one theory about why Labour lost this year’s general election
