Will not lead Labour at next election: Corbyn post defeat
London: After the defeat in United Kingdom general election, competitor Jeremy Corbym calls it a "very disappointing night" and further stated that he will not lead Labour into the next election.
Mr Corbyn said he would stay on as leader during a "process of reflection", and said Brexit had "polarised" politics which had "overridden normal political debate".
But others within Labour, including former MPs who lost their seats, blamed Mr Corbyn's leadership. BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Corbyn was not intending to resign and it could take until April for a leadership contest to take place. On the night, the Conservatives won a big majority, sweeping aside Labour strongholds across northern England, the Midlands and Wales in areas which backed Brexit in the 2016 referendum. Corbyn's labour could manage to secure only 203 seats.
Some traditional Labour constituencies, such as Darlington, Sedgefield and Workington, in the north of England, will have a Conservative MP for the first time in decades - or in the case of Bishop Auckland and Blyth Valley - for the first time since the seat was created.
At 33%, Labour's share of the vote is down around eight points on the 2017 general election and is lower than that achieved by Neil Kinnock in 1992.
Speaking at his election count in Islington North, where he was re-elected with a reduced majority, Mr Corbyn said Labour had put forward a "manifesto of hope" and criticised the "way the media behaved" towards his party during the campaign.
But he added: "Brexit has so polarised and divided debate in this country, it has overridden so much of a normal political debate." "I recognise that has contributed to the results that the Labour Party has received this evening all across this country." Labour primarily campaigned on a promise to end austerity by increasing spending on public services.
The party also promised to renegotiate Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit deal, and then put it to a referendum vote alongside the option of remaining in the EU. That strategy was criticised by party chairman Ian Lavery, who said it had led voters in traditional Labour seats to believe it was "a Remain party".
