Jeremy Corbyn has a more than 80 per cent chance of retaining Labour leadership, bookie says
Jeremy Corbyn has more than an 80 per cent chance of keeping his job at the helm of the Labour Party, according to one bookmaker.
Betfair says that Corbyn is currently rated at an 83 per cent chance in the Labour leadership contest.
He's up against Owen Smith, who was one of a number of MPs who stood down from Corbyn's frontbench earlier this month.
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Naomi Totten, spokesperson for Betfair, said: "Owen Smith was initially the 10/11 favourite in the Labour Leadership market when it opened two weeks ago. However, momentum has been behind Jeremy Corbyn ever since, who is currently odds-on at 1/5 with an 83 per cent chance of winning the upcoming contest. Owen Smith has just a 17 per cent chance.
"Corbyn has been consistently backed to be gone before the next general election, trading at a 96 per cent chance at one point.
"Since refusing to step aside in the face of the Labour coup and with the chance of a general election being brought forward to this year the odds have shifted in his favour, and it is now even money that the current Labour leader will be in place at the next election."
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Corbyn unveiled his campaign earlier this week, pledging that future Labour governments will require firms that employ more than 21 people to publish equality pay audits. Former Prime Minister David Cameron made this compulsory for firms with more than 250 staff.
Polling released by YouGov has also shown that Corbyn is the hot favourite to win against Smith.
For the leadership vote, some 183,000 people signed up to the Labour Party in just 48 hours this week, each paying £25 to become registered supporters. That is more than the Conservative and Liberal Democrat membership combined.