LABOUR CAN OMIT THOUSANDS FROM LEADERSHIP VOTE

Britain’s opposition Labour Party has the right to prevent tens of thousands of new members from voting in the party’s leadership contest, the Court of Appeal ruled Friday.

The left-of-centre party is in turmoil amid an attempt to unseat leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is seen by the party’s more centrist members as unelectable. He faces a challenge from MP Owen Smith in a vote that will be decided by party members.

The party executive ruled last month that only members of at least six months’ standing could vote in the contest. Five Labour members challenged the decision, and on Monday a judge agreed the party was wrong to disenfranchise people who had joined believing they would be able to vote. But the party lodged an appeal, and on Friday three judges said the lower-court judge had “erred in law.”