UK oppn chief Corbyn 'sorry' for poll wipeout

London: Britain's main opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn apologised Sunday for waging a disastrous campaign that handed Prime Minister Boris Johnson a mandate to take the UK out of the EU next month.

But the veteran socialist defended his far-left platform and blamed the media for helping relegate his century-old party to its worst performance since before World War II.

"I will make no bones about it. The election result on Thursday was a body blow for everyone who so desperately needs real change in our country," Corbyn wrote in the Sunday Mirror newspaper. "I wanted to unite the country that I love but I'm sorry that we came up short and I take my responsibility for it." Thursday's snap general election turned into a re-run of the 2016 EU membership referendum in which Johnson championed the Brexit cause. Johnson now commands an 80-vote majority in the 650-seat House of Commons -- a margin last enjoyed by the late Tory icon Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. A sombre but combative Corbyn said Friday that he will step aside once Labour completes a period of "reflection" about its mistakes.

The party is expected to have a new leader in place before England votes yet again in local polls in May. Yet the 70-year-old has no clear successor after a year of infighting between a protectionist old guard backed by the unions and more metropolitan members with pro-European views. Corbyn tried to find a balance between the two camps by taking a neutral position on Brexit -- a decision that Labour finance spokesman John McDonnell proved to be fatal. "What we tried to do is bring both sides together and we failed," McDonnell told the BBC. Labour's campaign was also dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism that forced a handful of senior lawmakers to resign.

Corbyn tried to shift the campaign's focus on bread-and-butter social issues important to Labour voters. "But despite our best efforts, this election was ultimately about Brexit," Corbyn admitted in his letter.