Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2016 <br /> <br />The British Labour Party leadership election of 2016 was called when a <br /> <br />challenge to Jeremy Corbyn as Leader of the Labour Party arose following <br /> <br />criticism of his allegedly weak support for the Remain campaign in the <br /> <br />referendum on membership of the European Union.[1] <br /> <br />After a period of tension over Corbyn's leadership, the immediate trigger to <br /> <br />events was the Leave result of the referendum. Hilary Benn, the Shadow Foreign <br /> <br />Secretary, was sacked by Corbyn on 25 June after Benn expressed no confidence <br /> <br />in him.[2] More than two dozen members of the Shadow Cabinet resigned over the <br /> <br />following two days,[3] and a no-confidence vote was supported by 172 MPs in the <br /> <br />Parliamentary Labour Party, against 40 supporting Corbyn.[4] It was reported <br /> <br />that Tom Watson, the Deputy Leader, told Corbyn that he would face a challenge <br /> <br />to his position as leader.[5] Corbyn stated that he would not resign.[6] <br /> <br />By the end of June, Angela Eagle and Owen Smith were being promoted as <br /> <br />intending to contest the leadership. Eagle announced her candidacy on 11 July, <br /> <br />[7][8] and Smith did likewise on 13 July.[9] The National Executive Committee <br /> <br />decided that, as the incumbent, Corbyn would be automatically included on the <br /> <br />ballot without requiring nominations from the parliamentary party;[10] some <br /> <br />political analysts had previously predicted that Corbyn would struggle to <br /> <br />obtain the requisite number of signatures had that been required.[11] <br /> <br />Eagle pulled out of the race on 19 July, leaving Smith to challenge Corbyn for <br /> <br />the leadership in a head-to-head race;[12] Eagle said that she would back Smith <br /> <br />after she had attracted fewer nominations. Smith told the BBC that Eagle was a <br /> <br />"star" and that she would be "at [his] right hand" if he won the leadership. <br /> <br />[13][14] <br /> <br />The result was announced on 24 September 2016. Jeremy Corbyn won the election <br /> <br />with 313,209 votes, increasing his share of the vote from 59.5% to 61.8% <br /> <br />compared with the result of the 2015 leadership election, and receiving some <br /> <br />62,000 more votes than in 2015.
