Labour leadership election: Jeremy Corbyn beats Owen Smith to remain leader with 62% of vote - as it happened

Jeremy Corbyn calls for unity in Labour after winning second leadership contest

Jeremy Corbyn has beaten Owen Smith to remain leader of the Labour Party. Here are the latest updates:

• Jeremy Corbyn wins with 61.8% of vote
• Leader says opponents must 'respect democratic choice'
• Read Mr Corbyn's victory speech in full
• Owen Smith tells opponent he must now 'win the country'
• Labour leaders leave party in protest at result
• Jewish peer set to quit Labour Party over re-election#
• 'How to leave Labour' becomes most-searched term
• Polls perfectly predicted the final result
• Tim Farron: Only the Lib Dems can provide effective opposition
• Andrew Grice: Re-election is a disaster for Labour
• What if Angela Eagle had contested the election?
• Exclusive poll shows working class voters view Mr Corbyn as 'election loser'

Please allow a moment for the live blog to load

Mr Corbyn had been the clear favourite to win the election, urging Labour MPs to unite behind him if he is returned as party leader with an even bigger mandate from grassroots members.

The victor said both he and Mr Smith were part of the “same Labour family” as he appealed for unity after winning 61.8 per cent of the vote.

He thanked voters in the contest for their “trust and support” after receiving 313,209 of the votes cast, compared with 193,229 for Mr Smith.

After private talks this week with senior MPs on Labour's moderate wing, Mr Corbyn is expected to seek to rebuild his frontbench team in the wake of the expected confirmation of his position.

The resignation of more than 40 frontbenchers in June left him unable to fill all his shadow ministerial posts and reports have suggested that as many as 14 may be ready to return following the apparent failure of Mr Smith's bid to unseat him.

But others, including Hilary Benn, Yvette Cooper and Chuka Umunna are thought likely to focus on their bids to secure the chairmanship of influential parliamentary committees, which will allow them to take prominent roles scrutinising Theresa May's government from outside Mr Corbyn's camp.

Labour's ruling National Executive Committee was due to meet after the result is announced, having put off a decision earlier this week on proposals to restore elections to the shadow cabinet, which might have given some centrist MPs a route back into Mr Corbyn's team.