London, July 10: The western world is getting an opportunity to show it is ready to consider the possibility of its first lesbian Prime Minister.

Angela Eagle, 55, who has been a Labour MP since 1992, will have that distinction if she can displace Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of her party - and then go on to beat either Theresa May or Andrea Leadsom at the next general election.

Eagle, who is not very well known in the country, came out as a lesbian in a newspaper article in September 1997, the second woman in parliament to do so, and then entered into a civil partnership with Maria Exall the following year.

In theory, her sexuality should be of no relevance. But in the rival Tory leadership contest, there are shades of Yerma, in which the Spanish novelist Federico García Lorca painted the harrowing portrait of a wife who is driven to taking extreme measures because she is vilified by society for being "barren".

May, 59, who has been home secretary for six years, is considered to be the favourite to win the Tory leadership battle but in a recent newspaper interview, she expressed sadness that she and her husband had been unable to have children.

Leadsom, 53, had appeared to suggest she would make a better Prime Minister as the mother of three children but she accused The Times, London, of "gutter journalism" yesterday for allegedly twisting her words to suggest the opposite of what she had meant.

Eagle, who was "shadow business secretary" in Corbyn's cabinet but resigned from the post, "announced" yesterday she would "announce" she would stand for the Labour leadership on Monday. Her twin sister, Maria, is also an MP.

It is not quite clear why after days of speculation, she did not simply announce she would run for the leadership instead of announcing that she would be making an announcement.

The situation is as follows: nine months ago, much to everyone's surprise, Corbyn, 67, an MP since 1983 and on the extreme Left of the party, was elected leader with a 60-40 mandate from some 400,000 members.

If there is another contest, the Labour Party members, who now number 500,000, will probably elect him again.

In parliament, however, Corbyn lost a no-confidence motion by 172 votes to 40. But despite calls from his critics, he has maintained he has a mandate from the party membership and intends to fight against Eagle or whoever stands against him.

According to published records, in 1974, Corbyn married Jane Chapman, a fellow Labour councillor for Haringey and now a professor at the University of Lincoln; they divorced in 1979.

In 1987, Corbyn married Chilean exile Claudia Bracchitta, by whom he has three sons. Following a difference of opinion about their sons' schooling, they divorced in 1999, although Corbyn said in 2015 that he continues to "get on very well" with his former wife.

In 2013, Corbyn married his long-term domestic partner Laura Álvarez, a Mexican émigrée who runs a fair-trade coffee import business.

One of Corbyn's strongest supporters in the Commons is a black woman MP, Diane Abbott - the couple were lovers in their early Labour days and once enjoyed a motorcycling holiday in East Germany.

When a caller on a radio chat show last week pointed out that Corbyn had put "Diane on his shadow cabinet", the presenter, Katie Hopkins, who thrives on being an outrageous Right-wing commentator, cut in: "He put her on something else, but we won't go there, darling!"

British politics, for long a beacon to the world, is now probably the most confused, toxic and undemocratic on the planet. The rules stipulate that a sitting Labour leader is automatically nominated on to the ballot paper, whereas challengers have to get 20 per cent of the votes of MPs and members of the European parliament.

Corbyn's enemies are now trying to massage the rules so as to prevent him from standing in a forthcoming leadership contest, so that he does not humiliate Eagle.

Speaking to ITV's Peston on Sunday, Eagle said: "I don't think he's been able to communicate with the electorate and he's now lost the confidence of the parliamentary (Labour) party. ... He's hiding behind a closed door, denying that this is a fact."

Predicting an early election, she added: "There could easily be a very quick general election and I believe I'm the right person to lead the Labour Party into that general election."

But the Labour leader urged Eagle to "think for a moment" about her actions.

On BBC One's Andrew Marr Show, Corbyn said he had "reached out in a way no other leader has" and that "I'm expecting to be on the ballot paper because the rules of the party indicate that the existing leader, if challenged, should be on the ballot paper anyway".

Responding to Eagle's decision to launch a challenge, he said: "I'm disappointed, but obviously she is free to do that if she wishes to.... We now have a very large membership, over half a million people are members of our party. They have joined for a reason and they want to see a party that is active all the time opposing what this government is doing."