Sir Keir Starmer has been voted in as the new leader of Labour, the UK's opposition party.

The main opposition party's shadow Brexit secretary was firm favourite to replace Jeremy Corbyn and beat competition from Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy in the three-month contest.

He said it was "the honour and the privilege of my life" to become leader, adding: "I will lead this great party into a new era, with confidence and hope, so that when the time comes, we can serve our country again - in government."

The 57-year-old triumphed in the first round of polling, winning 56.2 percent of the vote. Long-Bailey came second with 27.6 percent and Nandy took 16.2 percent of the vote.

Starmer is a former director of public prosecutions, who became an MP in 2015, and claimed that he was best placed to unite the party that last December lost its fourth successive general election.

Labour has suffered in-fighting under Corbyn, who was criticized for a lack of a clear line on Brexit during the general election which the Conservatives won under Boris Johnson. Following the resounding defeat, Corbyn opted to stand down as leader after five years.

Starmer built up strong support among Labour MPs and local constituency parties before the ballot of members opened in February.

The first task for Starmer will now be to scrutinize the government over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak and then trying to return Labour to power, with the party not having won a general election in 15 years.

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