Voting will begin on Monday to decide if Jeremy Corbyn, 67, will remain leader of Britain’s Labour party, with a bitter campaign deepening divisions that threaten the party’s future.
Ballots and online voting forms were due to be sent to party members, who will have until September 21 to decide whether to replace Corbyn with MP Owen Smith, 46, who was previously little known outside Westminster.
Smith precipitated the election by declaring his candidacy last month, warning that Corbyn’s leadership was making the possibility of a split in the party “dangerously real”.
Smith, a former member of Corbyn’s top team, is also targeting voters to the left of the party, promising a “socialist revolution”.
“Not some misty-eyed, romantic notion of a revolution where we are going to overthrow capitalism and return to a socialist nirvana … but a cold-eyed, practical socialist revolution where we build a better Britain,” he said last month.
Corbyn is favourite to stay as leader, retaining the support of most trade unions and many who signed up last year to propel him to a shock win in the leadership election called following the party’s thrashing in the general election.
But he has failed to win over many of the party’s MPs, 80 percent of whom backed a recent vote of no-confidence in their leader.
Britain’s vote on June 23 to leave the European Union provided the catalyst for the leadership challenge,with many in the party criticizing Corbyn’s performance during the campaign.
Last month, Labour MP Angela Eagle said she was withdrawing from the race to topple Corbyn, saying she would give her support to Smith to boost the chances of a leadership change.
Eagle started the contest by challenging Corbyn, but said she had since received fewer nominations from Labour politicians than Smith.