Corbyn ‘sorry’ for election wipeout

Britain’s main opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn apologised on Sunday for waging a disastrous campaign that handed Prime Minister Boris Johnson a mandate to take the UK out of the EU next month.

But the veteran socialist defended his far-left platform and blamed the media for helping relegate his century-old party to its worst performance since before World War II.

"I will make no bones about it. The election result on Thursday was a body blow for everyone who so desperately needs real change in our country," Corbyn wrote in the Sunday Mirror newspaper.

"I wanted to unite the country that I love but I’m sorry that we came up short and I take my responsibility for it." Thursday’s snap general election turned into a re-run of the 2016 EU membership referendum in which Johnson championed the Brexit cause. Johnson now commands an 80-vote majority in the 650-seat House of Commons -- a margin last enjoyed by the late Tory icon Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

A sombre but combative Corbyn said on Friday that he will step aside once Labour completes a period of "reflection" about its mistakes. The party is expected to have a new leader in place before England votes yet again in local polls in May.

Yet the 70-year-old has no clear successor after a year of infighting between a protectionist old guard backed by the unions and more metropolitan members with pro-European views.

Corbyn tried to find a balance between the two camps by taking a neutral position on Brexit -- a decision that Labour finance spokesman John McDonnell proved to be fatal. "What we tried to do is bring both sides together and we failed," McDonnell told the BBC.