The row has ended up in the courts after the party’s executive committee ruled last month that members who had joined the party since January 12 would not be eligible to vote unless they paid a further 25 pounds ($32). Prospective members who had phoned and emailed the party to ask if they would have a vote had been told they would, he added. Welcome aboard.”Academics from nine British universities have written to the BBC requesting a meeting about the “significant groundswell of concerns” over its coverage of Jeremy Corbyn”.
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“Crucial to the outcome today was the introduction of a new argument by the Labour Party HQ’s lawyers, who invoked an obscure clause in the Labour Party rules. which could be read as giving the NEC the right to ignore all of the rules laid out for leadership elections”.
Labour’s ruling body has won its bid to overturn a court decision allowing new party members to vote in the leadership election. “They see the Labour party as a vehicle for revolutionary socialism, and they’re not remotely interested in winning elections, and that’s a problem”.
The left-of-centre party is in turmoil amid an attempt to unseat leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The exclusion of the new members is thought to benefit Mr Smith and Mr Corbyn’s campaign team reacted furiously to the news on Friday, with John McDonnell accusing the NEC of undermining democracy.
A major Jewish donor to Britain’s Labour Party has compared supporters of party head Jeremy Corbyn to Nazi storm troopers.
He told a Milton Keynes rally that the party’s 500,000-strong membership will “win things in their community and ultimately win things for all communities”.
Those affected were given an opportunity to vote by paying an extra £25 to become “registered supporters” but the five insisted that was wrong and took their fight to the courts. At no stage in anyone’s most vivid imagination are there 300,000 sectarian extremists at large in the country who have suddenly descended on the Labour party.
Mr Sheldon submitted that the rule book gave the NEC “sufficiently broad powers that it can actually override the rules framework in a particular case, if it so wishes”.
Numerous members affected are believed to back Mr Corbyn rather than his rival Owen Smith.
When the rulebook no longer suits the right-wing “guardians”, its provisions can be summarily discarded, with Sheldon submitting that the NEC is the “ultimate arbiter as to the meaning of the rules”.
Much was made of the undoubted dangers of court interference into the operation of political parties.
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“It just goes to show you can’t trust the Tories with our NHS. We apologise for the Supreme Court for any misunderstanding on this matter”.
