In April 2016, it was announced that members of the Labour Party based in the Province would be registering an official Northern Irish version of the party, with a view to fighting elections.
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Numerous members affected are believed to back Mr Corbyn rather than his rival Owen Smith and the leader’s campaign team reacted with fury at the court’s decision.
Mr McNicol won a Court of Appeal action on Friday barring 130,000 new members from voting in the upcoming leadership contest – a development widely considered a blow for Mr Corbyn.
“But it’s actually about what we do as a party and as a movement and how we challenge the narrative the Tories are imposing on this country”. We can only win a general election by winning people over from either non-voting or voting for another party.
Corbyn said that while he wanted people to join the party “with good motives”, MPs and staff should be pleased that those who supported other parties were now joining Labour.
“Come September 25 – get on board, join in, take the fight to the Tories”.
Labour’s leadership election can now take place after supporters dropped a legal challenge against a ban on new members.
He railed against Britain becoming a “bargain basement island” on the fringe of Europe and was met with frequent cheers and applause.
A spokesman for his leadership campaign described the judgment as “the wrong decision – both legally and democratically”.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday about the Court of Appeal’s Friday ruling and his own unsuccessful foray into the courts, he said: “The courts decided that the rules as they stand allowed it (Mr Corbyn to be automatically included on the leadership ballot)”.
“But the case wasn’t in vain – although we didn’t succeed in reclaiming votes for the 130,000 disenfranchised members, we did win in the High Court, exposing facts which have spurred important conversations about the role of the Labour Party membership and the NEC (National Executive Committee)”.
It is understood that the Supreme Court was preparing to hear the case on Tuesday and making urgent arrangements to pull back five justices during summer recess.
Court of appeal judges also ordered the five to pay legal costs and refused the right to appeal to the supreme court, meaning that they would have to ask the supreme court if it would hear the case.
NEC chairman Paddy Lillis insisted the party had been right to launch an appeal because the original decision had “wide-ranging implications for the party and the authority of our governing body”.
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A crowdfunded legal case was brought against Labour by Christine Evangelou, the Rev Edward Leir, Hannah Fordham, Chris Granger and FM, a teenage member, in an attempt to argue that the ruling was a breach of their contract with the party.
