Judges had ruled that new members should be allowed to vote in the leadership contest – despite a ruling from the party’s National Executive Committee which banned anyone who joined after January 12 from voting unless they paid an extra £25.
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“Due to this decision, we are now in the absurd position that Labour HQ is wasting members’ money to prevent members having a democratic vote on the leader of their choice, which has already been firmly upheld by a High Court judgment”.
Arguing they had been misled, Mr Cragg said: “They paid their dues and found to their surprise they had been excluded from the present election”.
Critics see the court result as a major boost for Mr Corbyn as the majority of the new members are thought to back him to continue his leadership.
A spokesperson for the party said: “It is right that the Labour Party seeks to defend vigorously decisions of the National Executive Committee in this matter, and we will now study the judgement carefully”. “This statement was not qualified with any conditions – so the NEC’s attempt to retrospectively alter this contract has (rightly) been ruled to be wrong”.
The six-month cutoff was passed in a controversial six-hour meeting of Labour’s NEC where a rival bid to make it June 24 failed by one vote.
A former aide to Jeremy Corbyn reportedly told the Sunday Times that he informed Shami Chakrabarti of his concerns about anti-Israel rhetoric within the office, but that these were not included in her report into anti-Semitism.
“There is a fracture running through the Labour party – this internecine war that we’re caught up in this summer is a huge distraction at a very serious time for our country”. A lot of people joined the party in the last six months and will be extremely annoyed.
Joining the party involved a transaction for the now disenfranchised members.
“There may be a legal move, but nothing has been decided yet”.
Labour’s lawyers were given permission to appeal the decision by the judge, meaning the ruling could still be overturned although Mr Justice Hickinbottom said he did not want to give Labour’s QC “false hope” of winning.
Corbyn’s visit follows a private rally held by his challenger Owen Smith at The Station on Silver Street which attracted 200 supporters last week.
Today’s was the second legal ruling in the High Court to come from the one meeting.
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He declared: “For the party to refuse to allow the claimants to vote in the current leadership election, because they have not been members since 12 January 2016, would be unlawful as in breach of contract”.
