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[Ticker] Second EU referendum ruled out by Jeremy Corbyn

But these NEC elections have no bearing on the leadership contest itself.

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Numerous new members who were excluded later paid £25 and signed up again as registered Labour supporters in order to vote in the leadership election.

The NEC took this decision after Corbyn and several of his supporters had left the meeting.

It comes just over a week after a high court judge ruled that Corbyn was entitled to automatically be on the ballot paper for the Labour leadership contest.

“I understand the anger felt by many MU members following the European Union referendum result”.

The court action affects nearly 130,000 Labour supporters who were affected by the freeze.

This accounts for the continued efforts to restrict the ballot.

The High Court ruling has been viewed by many as a major boost for Mr Corbyn.

Ms Fletcher said she was hoping the group would have the chance to speak to Mr Corbyn after the rally to get his support for the cause. Of those that did, many did not vote the way their unions suggested they should, with not all affiliated unions supporting Miliband.

Rev Edward Leir, one of the five members who won the legal challenge, said Labour’s decision to appeal was “madness”.

Someone seemed even happier than Labour members about the news.

Five members challenged that decision and on Monday a High Court judge ruled that they had joined the party on the basis they would be able to vote in any leadership contest.

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”.

They said they had paid their dues for a right to vote.

General secretary Iain McNicol faces being ousted if the party loses its legal bid.

Justice Hickinbottom said the Labour NEC did not have the powers to restrict the voting rights of members and it would be “unlawful as in breach of contract”.

Kate Harrison, solicitor for the claimants, said that overall the ruling could affect up to 150,000 members.

The party’s governing National Executive Committee had decided people who had been members for less than six months up to July 12 could not vote in the contest between embattled leader Jeremy Corbyn and relatively unknown challenger Owen Smith.

The Tottenham MP also accused wings of the party of being engaged in a clash which they had been fighting “since student union times”.

Gaynor Fletcher (pictured far right), from Gunnislake, said: “We all realised we had to work until we were 62 and then in the back door until 66. I am not sure I am convinced that the contrary is arguable”.

Jeremy Corbyn himself hinted he could back a legal action, telling the Sunday Mirror before it launched: “We haven’t heard the end of this”.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has rejected the idea that allies of Mr Corbyn support the ruling only because it could benefit the incumbent.

Jeremy Corbyn has called on the Labour Party to move the proposed date for the Labour leadership election result because it clashes with another important event: the Labour Women’s conference.

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“We are urging the Labour Party to respect democracy and not waste members’ money on trying to prevent a quarter of its membership from voting”.

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