Jeremy Corbyn picks up Labour leadership in landslide vote — Twitter reaction

He gained 251,417 or 59.5% of first preference votes – 40% more than his nearest rival Mr Burnham, who got 19%.

Corbyn supporters chanted “Jez we did” as he took to the stage, putting on his glasses to deliver his acceptance speech.

He praised each of his rival candidates in turn and welcomed the hundreds of thousands of new Labour members “fed up with the inequality, the injustice, the unnecessary poverty” who had joined the party since May’s general election. “All those issues have brought people in, in a spirit of hope and optimism”, he said.

“The Tories have used the economic crisis of 2008 to impose a bad burden on the poorest people in this country”. “Some had some reluctance to do so but they did so in a spirit of inclusion and democracy”.

His victory came when the results of the four-way fight were announced at a special Labour conference.

“We are going to reform ourselves as an Abba tribute band and continue this work in the future”.

“The fightback now of our party gathers speed and gathers pace,” Corbyn added in his speech.

Shadow health minister and Copeland MP Jamie Reed resigned his front bench post in the moments following Mr Corbyn’s victory, saying he would not “let anything or anyone from any party stand in the way of the ambitions of my community”.

“I say to journalists: attack public political figures, that’s ok, that’s what politics is about”.

“They’ve been through the most appalling levels of abuse from some parts of our media. So, Ed, thank you for all of that”.

Sources close to the left candidate said his prospects look “very, very promising” after union-backed Sadiq Khan won Labour’s London mayoral selection yesterday.

“He could win among every section”.

“I believe we should respect that mandate”.

There were 554,572 eligible voters in the election, of whom 422,664 cast their votes.

Ed Miliband, who stepped down in May as Labour leader, urged his party to support Corbyn.

The three-month election campaign was still mired in controversy when voting closed yesterday lunchtime with some party members claiming they had not received ballot papers.

Having started as a 100/1 outsider, Mr Corbyn finished the contest as the 1/20 favourite.

Corbyn drew strong support from students who had never voted before to older people disillusioned with Labour since it moved to the centre-ground of British politics under Tony Blair in the 1990s and led the country into the controversial 2003 Iraq war.