Jeremy Corbyn took the political world by surprise when he romped to victory in last year’s Labour leadership contest, having begun as a rank outsider.
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In an interview with the Observer, the Labour leader said of Mr Watson: “I read about his letter to me in the media”.
While Mr Corbyn still holds the lead among Labour party members – his support among those who voted Labour in 2015 has diminished, and Mr Smith has the edge among the wider public.
It is thought that many of those 130,000 members would have voted for Mr Corbyn, meaning their exclusion could benefit Mr Smith. “I rather doubt that most of the parliamentary party want, or membership, actually want to see a split, not least because we’ve been there and done that and gave Thatcher unfettered power for a long time”.
The vote was carried despite one Jeremy Corbyn supporter, who is not a Labour party member, trying to enter the meeting using someone else’s membership card.
A consultation by the Jewish Labour Movement of its members found just four per cent backed Mr Corbyn.
The party was going through a leadership election, the result of which would be decided by party members and supporters, with the victor declared in September.
He said: “That wasn’t popular but overall the meeting was conducted in a good and respectful atmosphere”. “But let’s look at that when the new NEC takes over”.
Mr Corbyn has called the claims “nonsense”, saying 300,000 people had joined the party.
The group said it would cost £1,000 to get their case heard by the Supreme Court – on top of the more than £80,000 in legal fees and costs they have already had to pay.
The Labour leader won the support of 285 constituency Labour parties (CLPs), with his rival, Owen Smith, taking just 53 nominations.
“The Labour party is in a very hard position at the moment with a lot of abuse being thrown around”, Phillips said.
The BBC interviewer suggested that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, the Shadow Chancellor, had condemned abuse.
Calvin added, “I’m nowhere near a Trotskyist”. I have never claimed that hundreds of thousands of new joiners are revolutionary socialists and those who claim I did are attacking a straw man.
Ms Fordham said: “In our original statement we stated that the fee for a hearing by the Supreme Court was £8,000”.
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According to its website, the JLM is a “formal affiliate of the Labour Party in the UK since 1920”, which “campaigns within the party and the wider community to support Labour values within the UK, Israel and internationally”.
