Labour-supporting Momentum launches campaign to oust UK PM frontrunner Johnson

LONDON (Reuters) - A group set up to support British opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has launched a campaign to try to oust Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to become the next prime minister, from his parliamentary seat, it said on Monday.

Momentum, created just weeks after Corbyn's surprise appointment as leader of the Labour Party in 2015, said it would send hundreds of their supporters to Johnson's electoral district in west London later this month to “unseat” him.

Johnson holds a small majority in his constituency of just 5,034 votes, making him vulnerable to other parties keen to unseat him in a new national election, which, while not being due until 2022, might be held earlier to try to break the deadlock over Britain's departure from the European Union.

“Now we're launching a campaign to make sure Johnson goes down in history as the first sitting prime minister to lose his seat,” said Becky Boumelha, a member of Momentum's National Coordinating Group.

“At the last election we slashed his majority in half, and now even Tories (Conservatives) admit his seat is vulnerable to a surge in young voters at the next election.”

Johnson is the favorite to become Britain's next prime minister and is expected to win a leadership election triggered when Theresa May announced she would step down after failing to get her Brexit deal through parliament.

The former London mayor and foreign minister has won over many Conservatives by promising to leave the EU at the new deadline of Oct. 31, with or without a deal -- something that Labour says would hurt the economy and end in job losses.