Liverpool: Socialist Jeremy Corbyn is set to be re-elected head of Britain's opposition Labour party on Saturday, emerging victorious from a power struggle with MPs which threatens to tear the historic movement apart.
Ahead of the announcement of the result in Liverpool, northwest England, Corbyn issued a plea for unity after the bitter campaign and reached out to supporters of his rival Owen Smith.
"Whatever the result, whatever the margin, we all have a duty to unite, cherish and build our movement," said the 67-year-old, who is expected to win a clear majority.
But Corbyn's victory will be a bitter pill to swallow for the majority of Labour MPs who rebelled against him after June's Brexit referendum, accusing him of not campaigning hard enough to keep Britain in the EU.
There are now fears that without a strong Labour opposition, Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives may be heading for a "hard Brexit" that would take Britain not only out of the European Union but also out of Europe's single market.
Senior party figures are pleading with MPs opposed to Corbyn to come back and work with him after the expected win -- but also say he needs to do better.
Labour's home affairs spokesman Andy Burnham told BBC radio that, while the "war of attrition" must stop, Corbyn must also build more support among the public, not just Labour activists.
"No-one gets the right to take Labour down to a devastating (election) defeat," he added.
Corbyn claims his anti-austerity message has energised people who had long given up on mainstream politics, yet critics say he is unelectable.
They also accuse his supporters of intimidation and of trying to take over the party.
"This is not going anywhere anytime soon. It is entrenched warfare," said Steven Fielding, an expert on Labour at the University of Nottingham.
"There will be no victor in the short term, apart from the Conservatives, of course, who are laughing all the way to the next election," he added.
'Furthest from power since '30s'
Corbyn was first elected last year with 59 percent of the vote from party members, and with strong backing from trade unions, but was immediately criticised by MPs who say his left-wing views are outdated.
The divisions widened in the following months and reached breaking point with the EU referendum, which triggered mass resignations from his shadow cabinet and a vote of no confidence in his leadership by 172 of the party's 230 MPs.
But the threat against Corbyn faded into a whimper when lawmakers backed the relatively unknown Smith to challenge for the leadership.
Few commentators believed Smith could win, and the contest appears only to have entrenched divisions between Corbyn and Labour's MPs.
Former Labour foreign secretary David Miliband, a centrist narrowly beaten to the party leadership by his brother Ed in 2010, wrote in the New Statesman magazine this week: "We have not been further from power since the 1930s."
'Unhappy family'
Corbyn has been in parliament since 1983 and strongly opposed the party's centrist "New Labour" prime minister Tony Blair, who won three elections.
The bearded vegetarian, who had never held high office before becoming leader but set up a mass protest movement against the Iraq War, has a messianic appeal to supporters who have packed his rallies around the country.
Corbyn supporters were planning to unfurl a banner in support of his fight for "social justice" at Anfield Saturday before Liverpool's Premier League clash with Hull City.
But his message does not appear to have resonated with the wider electorate. Labour lags behind May's Conservatives in the opinion polls, while his personal ratings are dire.
While some in Labour have suggested they could form a new centre-left party, analysts say most will do everything to avoid this.
"It looks to me like a miserable, unhappy family trying to coexist," said Tony Travers, a politics expert at the London School of Economics.
