‘With Labour branch meetings suspended until after the leadership election, grassroots Labour members will continue to meet as planned to support Jeremy Corbyn, ‘ said James Rosen, a member of Brentford Labour.
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Labour’s National Executive Committee has decided that members who joined after January 12 this year will not automatically be eligible to vote in the leadership election.
Delegates at the union’s conference in Brighton passed a motion demanding the controversial move which MPs opposed to embattled leader Jeremy Corbyn fear would be used to launch a purge against them.
The Wallasey MP has condemned her party leader for failing to get a grip on extremists engaged in violent threats and intimidation.
New frontbencher Paul Flynn has warned the current divisions have put Labour in the “worst position we’ve been in” since the party was founded.
The leadership race was triggered by a challenge to leader Jeremy Corbyn from former Shadow Business Secretary Angela Eagle, which came after mass resignations from Corbyn’s top team and a no confidence vote in his leadership.
Their attitudes on other issues is overwhelmingly liberal – 84% back equal marriage, just one in five want tougher sentences for criminals.
Corbyn himself, of course, is hailed by his left-wing supporters as the man of principle in this tawdry contest.
Michael Foster, whose family has given the party more than £400,000 (US$530,000) since 2010, is expected to bring the application at the High Court on Thursday afternoon. Just over one in four – 28% – live in northern England.
The challenge to Mr Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party began amid claims he had not campaigned strongly enough for a Remain win in the EU Referendum.
Perhaps a more pressing concern for Labour members, though, are the voting rules which have consumed the party for the last week.
She said she had been optimistic when Jeremy Corbyn became party leader, but adding: “I looked forward to working, under Jeremy’s leadership, on subjects I was passionate and indeed knowledgeable about”. Whether people sign it or not, it will be used against them.
NEC members wrestled with legal advice for six hours over whether the Mr Corbyn would need to secure 51 nominations to make it on to the ballot paper after both sides insisted the party rulebook backed their case.
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Disenfranchising party members and shutting down all traces of local party democracy until after the leadership election are not the actions of a party committed to democracy, they are the actions of cowards who are terrified of letting ordinary people have their say.
