Corbynite MPS could be ousted after Labour rule change

CORBYNITE MPS face being deselected before the next election after a rule change designed to cement the control of moderates in the Labour Party.

A motion at this year’s Labour conference in Brighton changed the rules for local constituency Labour parties on how members can vote out their MPS before the next election.

Zarah Sultana, a rising star on the party’s Left, faces losing her seat because Labour members in Coventry hope to deselect her, the BBC reported.

Moderates in the party hope that candidates from the 2019 election who had the support of the Corbyn leadership can be removed before the next election in 2023 or 2024.

September’s rule change increases the threshold of members or affiliates required to remove a sitting MP as the candidate at the next election from one third to one half.

It makes it more difficult for a hardleft minority to force an MP to face the re-selection process. But Corbynites who are unpopular with an increasingly moderate membership could be removed.

Ms Sultana has a majority of only 401 in Coventry South.

A decision at Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee last week means the process for selecting MPS is to begin soon, with “trigger ballots” expected in some seats by early 2022. MPS will first be asked whether they plan to stand again at the next election or retire.

The working assumption at the top of Labour is thought to be that Boris Johnson will go to the country in spring 2023, 18 months before the end of the current Parliament.

Party sources declined to comment on whether the rule change was designed to cement Sir Keir Starmer’s control of the party by bolstering moderate candidates.

But it is thought that since Mr Corbyn stepped down as Labour leader, the average stance of rank-and-file members has shifted to the centre.