Call off ‘f lawed’ leadership race, say Labour MPs
Fears over hard-Left infiltrating the vote
LABOUR should suspend its leadership race over fears it is being warped by a wave of hard-Left ‘infiltrators’, two MPs said yesterday.
Tens of thousands more activists are now eligible to vote than before the General Election, with indications that many of them have signed up just to back Jeremy Corbyn.
The Communist Party of Great Britain is among the groups that have urged supporters to join Labour and endorse the Islington North MP. Under new rules, they can pay just £3 and take part in the ballot.
The revelations return Labour to the ‘entryism’ rows of the 1980s, when Neil Kinnock finally managed to expel members of the Militant Tendency from the party.
Backbencher John Mann said the contest was ‘totally out of control’, and insisted acting leader Harriet Harman should step in so proper checks can be conducted.
‘It should be halted,’ he told The Sunday Times. ‘It is becoming a farce with long-standing members in danger of getting trumped by people who have opposed the Labour Party and want to break it up – some of it is the Militant Tendency types coming back in.’
It was reported yesterday that Green Party activists and former candidates for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, an electoral alliance including the Socialist Workers’ Party, were signing up for a vote in the leadership race.
Graham Stringer, another Labour backbencher, told the BBC: ‘Fundamentally I think this is a deeply flawed system and should be scrapped.
‘The party has a difficult choice. It either has to go ahead with this election or it has to delay the decision, or it has to change the system. I would prefer a fundamental change to the system.’
He added: ‘I am worried that people who do not have the interests of the Labour Party at heart are joining the Labour Party. Whoever is elected I want them to be chosen by Labour Party members.’
Mr Corbyn said the only entryism he knew about was the influx of ‘young people’ newly enthused by politics.
The Left-winger told the BBC: ‘I have said all along from the very beginning, I only want people to register as Labour supporters if they are genuinely Labour supporters and they want to stay.’
Andy Burnham, the other leadership frontrunner, said calls for the contest to be halted were not ‘at all helpful’, saying he did not believe there was any ‘widescale’ infiltration.
Labour backbencher Simon Danczuk said a victory for Mr Corbyn was ‘a nightmare’.
But he insisted the party could not halt the contest and the other candidates had to focus on beating the Left-winger.
‘We are where we are. The party is in a terrible place. It is quite clear there has been some movement to try and get people who are Conservatives to sign up to be supporters. There has been an orchestrated effort to do that.’
Comment – Page 14
‘System should be scrapped’