Keir Starmer elected as Labour Party leader, takes over leadership from Jeremy Corbyn

Britain's main opposition Labour Party on Sunday elected Keir Starmer as its leader, who took the reins from Jeremy Corbyn following a protracted four-month contest.

Corbyn stepped down from the party's leadership after finishing runners-up to Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson in last December's general election. December election was also the poorest performance by the Labour Party in any general election so far, as reported by Al Jazeera

Starmer is a knighted barrister and the former director of public prosecutions. He took 56.2 per cent vote on Saturday in an election where he was challenged by Rebecca Long-Bailey and Indian origin MP Lisa Nandy.

Angela Rayner was also elected as a deputy to Starmer, who made a pre-recorded victory speech online where he described his election as an "honour and privilege".

He said in a tweet, "It's the honour and privilege of my life to be elected as Leader of the Labour Party. 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 moderate 57-year-old lawyer-turned-politician is a Europhile who resigned as Shadow immigration minister in 2016, citing the need to bring changes in the leadership of the party following the UK's Brexit vote.

Starmer will be taking over the leader of the opposition party amidst a global crisis and would want to steer Labour Party towards a claim to power in future.