14/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Jeremy Corbyn romps home to Labour Party leadership victory. Jeremy Corbyn took the helm of the British party on Saturday 12 September, when he won in the first round with 59.5% of the 550,000 voters called upon to elect the successor to Ed Miliband, who stepped down after his party's defeat in the general elections of May. This veteran of British politics is highly controversial, even within his own party, particularly for his pacifist, pro-Palestinian stance and his opposition to economic austerity and the free-trade agreement currently being negotiated with the United States. On Sunday, one of the senior centrist figures in the Labour Party, Chuka Umunna, said that he would not be working closely with Corbyn as he had not had any clear assurances as to the new Labour leader's intentions to work to keep the UK in the European Union. (MB)