The decision is an apparent boost to Jeremy Corbyn in his battle to remain the Labour leader as most new members are expected to support him in his contest against rival Owen Smith. Mr Corbyn has the backing of Unite.
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Mr Smith said: “It’s a great honour to receive GMB’s nomination to be the next leader of the Labour Party after a consultation with its members”. This is 100,000 more houses than Mr Corbyn has promised.
Successive Labour leaderships have for years tried to distance themselves from unions and dilute unions’ influence in the party.
“For every Green supporter and non-voter Jeremy attracts to Labour he loses the support of several ordinary voters, as those of us who have been meeting local voters in recent weeks and months can confirm”.
And there’s more. I could go on.
“They are caucusing and factionalising and putting pressure where they can, and that’s how Trotsky entryists operate. Sooner or later, that always end up in disaster”.
Britain’s Labour Party has gone to court in a bid to prevent tens of thousands of new members from voting in the party’s leadership contest.
At the party conference past year, the union refused to back Mr Corbyn’s stance on the issue, telling him hundreds of thousands of defence jobs were reliant on retaining the nuclear deterrent and to “get real”.
A total of 20,190 members took part in an online consultation, with two questions asked: “Would you like the Labour Link committee to nominate a candidate in the forthcoming Labour Leadership election?” and “If the Unison Labour Link committee decides to nominate a candidate, do you have a preference on which candidate they should nominate?”
She told BBC Radio 4’s World At One: “Ultimately we have to have a much more healthy conversation around reselection, if not mandatory reselection”.
But Andy Burnham said her comments were unhelpful and would only fuel a climate of distrust.
“It’s a really important issue as to whether or not the NEC have the power to determine whether you need to be a member for a certain specified period of time before you can participate in the leadership election because it won’t just affect this election, it will affect any subsequent leadership election”. “I was here standing under that tree over there in May when we celebrated the election of Marvin as the mayor of Bristol; an incredible day and an incredible achievement”.
Smith’s team has calculated that by Thursday evening – when Corbyn faces Smith in Gateshead for their second hustings – he will have racked up 3,016 miles on the leadership campaign trail so far.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell rejected the idea that allies of Mr Corbyn support the ruling only because it could benefit the incumbent.
But Mr Miliband said Mr Smith is the best candidate to make the crisis following the European Union referendum “a progressive moment”.
“I want a Labour leader who can rise to the challenge of this moment”.
As a postal worker of over 30 years service, I feel Owen has the ability to reach out beyond the Labour heartlands and make the case for a future progressive left government. We need a leader who has the policies and the competence to win the next elections and Owen Smith is that leader.
Most bookmakers placed Smith’s odds at an average of 5/1 last week, but in the wake of Miliband’s backing, those odds have lengthened to an average of 7/1 – just a 12% chance.
Leaflets are circulated, which cheer on Labour’s leader and attack Tories and Blairites. Watson had used a Guardian interview earlier this week to suggest that entryism was behind the strong support for Corbyn.
There was a mood for unity but not with infiltrators representing the interests of the ruling class, they already have a party they can join – the Tory Party. There were so few people left by the time I stepped down that if I’d stayed it would have sent the message that I was 110% behind Corbyn and his leadership and I wasn’t and I had to be true to myself.
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That wasn’t the only controversy on a lively night which provided fresh insights into anti-semitism within Labour’s grassroots and Corbyn’s own constituency party.
