Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been crowned 'Parliamentary Beard of the Year' by beard enthusiast group, the Beard Liberation Front.

The politician won the accolade with 1,972 votes, with runner-up Ben Bradley, receiving 909 votes.

Other shortlisted politicians included Crispin Blunt, Nadhim Zahawi and Barry Gardiner.

Jeremy Corbyn has won the title seven times before, and was excluded from last year's event to allow new MPs a chance to break through.

Founder of the Beard Liberation Front and competition organiser, Keith Flett, told talkRADIO the title was "purely about the influence of the beard", and not the individual's politics.

"I suppose Corbyn wins it because going back into the 90's he was the only MP who had a beard," Mr Flett said.

"His beard at the minute is far from the most magnificent, there are plenty of better ones, but it's not just about how long the beard is."

'We had a lot of trouble last year with bots in Russia voting for Prince Harry'

Lord Hylton. Image: UK Parliament

Mr Flett revealed his personal winner was cross-bench peer, Lord Hylton.

"My favourite Parliamentary beard is in the House of Lords, Lord Hylton," he said. "Traditionally he never got any votes, he was always on the poll, but he never got any. This year he's managed - I don't know how it happened - he managed to get a few votes."

The competition has been running since 2001, alongside the overall Beard of the Year competition, which spans politicians, royals and celebrities.

"We had a lot of trouble last year with bots in Russia who kept voting for Prince Harry," Mr Flett said. "This is meant to be light-hearted, seasonal fun, and now we're finding huge numbers of votes coming in from Russia."