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Owen Smith insists he can win after Labour court ruling

Labour’s leadership election has been thrown into chaos after the High Court ruled that 130,000 party members who joined after January should be allowed to vote.

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John McDonnell, shadow chancellor and chair of Corbyn’s leadership campaign, previously said the Labour leader would go if he lost, adding: “Any Labour leader who loses an election usually goes”.

Mr Smith told them that tackling inequality is a priority for him, including ensuring the United Kingdom 500,000 Sikhs, of which 134,000 live in the West Midlands, should be better represented.

The judge overturned the requirement that they must have been members since 12 January – at least six months’ continuous membership up to 12 July – the “freeze date”.

When this was unsuccessful, a millionaire party donor tried to challenge the decision in the high court, which also failed.

The Pontypridd MP said: “We should have a £200bn British new deal and we should be spending £50bn of that in the north”. If it is taken forwards, the Party will be using members’ money to try to stop members from voting.

The single mum has been a Labour voter all her life, but only recently joined the party to support Jeremy Corbyn.

Although Corbyn’s leadership splits public opinion, it’s undeniable that he has swelled the ranks of Labour party membership to heights unseen even under Tony Blair.

Bookies slashed odds on Mr Corbyn winning from 1/10 to 1/16 after the ruling.

Smith, in response to the ruling, said that the leadership contest should be extended.

17 people who were present at a local CLP meeting have filed a complaint alleging she was mockingly referred to as “Angie the Dyke” – though supporters of Mr Corbyn continue to insist there was no abuse whatsoever.

The Labour leader told The Sunday Mirror: “I want the House of Lords abolished and replaced by an elected upper chamber”.

“It’s simply not good enough for Theresa May to turn a blind eye to this situation – we need fundamental reform of the honours system so it can reward good deeds and restore people’s trust in politics”. I hope that Labour HQ rethinks this decision as it could leave a legal bill in the hundreds of thousands of pounds that we could be spending instead on campaigning to hold this Tory government to account, instead of subverting our own democratic processes.

Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: “This is a victory for democracy”.

Yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn called for the announcement to be brought forward to Friday, September 23, so it would not clash with Labour’s annual Women’s conference.

A lot of people joined the party in the last six months and will be extremely annoyed.

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But would delay the result until after the party’s annual conference, leaving the challenger without a platform at the event.

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