A split in the Labour party would risk repeating the Thatcher years of “unfettered power” for the Conservatives, Labour’s former foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett has said, amid concerns that the battle for leadership of the party could create an irreparable divide.
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Announcing the Court of Appeal’s decision on Friday, Lord Justice Beatson, sitting with Lady Justice Macur and Lord Justice Sales, said: “On the correct interpretation of the party rules, the National Executive Committee has the power to set the criteria for members to be eligible to vote in the leadership election in the way that it did”.
Last month Mr Smith’s rival, Jeremy Corbyn, took a dig at his rival for comments he made about “choice” and private health providers when he worked as a lobbyist for drug company Pfizer in 2005.
Ex-foreign secretary Dame Margaret Beckett, who has previously branded herself a “moron” for nominating Mr Corbyn for the Labour leadership previous year, attacked those who have flooded to join the party in support of the veteran left-winger.
More than 130,000 new members have joined the party in the last six months, many of whom are believed to support the incumbent leader.
But Dame Margaret told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme numerous party’s newer members were merely part of a Corbyn “fan club”.
“They invoked an obscure clause in the Labour Party rules (Chapter 4, Clause II, 1.A), which could be read as giving the NEC the right to ignore all of the rules laid out for leadership elections”.
Unison, who were in attendance at the rally, back Corbyn to continue as the leader of the Labour party.
“But that doesn’t mean you belong to the Labour party and I would be sorry to think that vast numbers of those people in fact do not really want to be in the Labour party, they just want to support Jeremy”.
The High Court declared on Monday that refusing five members the vote would be an unlawful breach of the party’s contract.
“I can only commend Jeremy for his efforts on this campaign – his energy, stamina and drive to go up and down the country campaigning – he’s setting out what a Jeremy Corbyn Labour government would look like”.
“This is about whether or not we have an alternative to the present government who otherwise will be set free to wreck people’s lives, as I fear that they will”.
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Labour’s ruling committee proposed that new members would only be able to vote if they paid £25 to become “registered supporters” in a 48 hour window. “It was the correct decision to seek clarification on this fundamental principle in the Court of Appeal”.
