Jeremy Corbyn: How did the Labour leader get into politics and will he become prime minister?

The Islington North MP spent years in the wilderness before becoming Labour leader in 2015

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Reuters)

Once the quintessential backbencher, Jeremy Corbyn has had that rarest of things - a political second act.

The Islington North MP spent years in the wilderness before becoming Labour leader in 2015, where he has bolstered the party's membership and presided over its most left-wing manifesto in a generation.

He has defied leadership challenges and predictions of a Labour wipe-out in the 2017 snap election. However he has also faced a crisis over Labour's handling of antisemitism allegations and the party remains divided, particularly over Brexit.

How did Jeremy Corbyn get into politics?

Jeremy Corbyn was born in Wiltshire in 1949. His parents David and Naomi were both Labour Party members, who met at rally supporting the cause of the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War.

Despite his apparently middle-class childhood, Mr Corbyn himself joined the party at the tender age of 16 and he was an active member of the Young Socialists and the League Against Cruel Sports as a teenager.

On leaving his grammar school - with two E-grade A Levels - Mr Corbyn volunteered abroad in Jamaica and Latin America, before returning home to work for several trade unions.

When did he first become an MP?

Mr Corbyn became deeply involved with Labour Party politics, successfully standing for election to Haringey Council in 1978, when he was only 24-years-old.

He worked on the 1979 election campaign in Hornsey and helped to organise Tony Benn's unsuccessful deputy leadership campaign, who was one of his major political influences.

In 1983, Mr Corbyn was elected to represent Islington North, a seat he has held ever since.

For the next 32 years, he existed on the fringes of the parliamentary party, rebelling against the party whip hundreds of times and pursuing causes ranging from the end to apartheid to LGBT rights and nuclear disarmament.

An internationalist in his outlook, Mr Corbyn spent many years campaigning for Palestinian solidarity and Irish republicanism, although his engagement with groups such as Hamas and the IRA has caused him problems later on.

How did he become Labour leader?

Labour's poor performance at the 2015 general election prompted Ed Miliband to stand down as party leader, triggering a contest to find a successor.

Mr Corbyn was the outside candidate in the race against more moderate MPs - Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and Liz Kendall - but he wanted to offer a left-wing voice. His long-time allies John McDonnell and Diane Abbott had both stood before and lost.

But a change in Labour's rules designed to hand power to ordinary members gave Mr Corbyn a landslide victory, while thousands of members and supporters who were disillusioned by New Labour flocked to his cause.

His first year at the top was plagued with infighting, eventually leading to a leadership crisis in the summer of 2016 after the EU referendum, where he defeated challenger Owen Smith.

Mr Corbyn then led the party to the better-than-expected result in the 2017 snap general election, which cemented his authority further.

Will he be the next prime minister?

Mr Corbyn appears to have won the battle for the heart of his party, which was evident at Labour's conference in Liverpool in September 2018.

However much depends on when the next election falls. If Brexit chaos forces Theresa May to somehow trigger an early election then Mr Corbyn could be in with a very good chance.

But if the next election comes in May 2022, as scheduled under the fixed terms parliament act, then everything could still be to play for.