Corbyn seeks support from Scottish Left MP plans to tour north of the Border
LEFT-WING MP Jeremy Corbyn is to embark on a Scottish tour to try to drum up more support after it emerged 6,000 non-Labour members have signed up to vote in the leadership race.
Party bosses fear militants and pro-independence supporters – as well as some mischievous Tories – are infiltrating the contest to back the member for Islington North.
Now the frontrunner in the race intends to capitalise on the voting system chaos by spending two days north of the Border, speaking in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee.
His visit at the end of next week is set to overshadow the Scottish Labour leadership contest, with the winner of that due to be announced only hours later.
Senior Labour figures have said it was a ‘huge mistake’ to allow people to register as ‘supporters’ to vote in both the UK and Scottish contests for only £3.
Recent figures put Labour’s UK-wide membership at more than 260,000, with nearly 70,000 new members since the General Election.
A f urther 21,000 have j oined as ‘registered supporters’ after paying their £3 online; and there are nearly 30,000 registered union supporters who will also have a vote.
In Scotland, it is understood some 6,000 supporters have signed up, boosting the party’s 15,000 membership by 40 per cent.
One insider said there had been an influx of Left-wingers, which is also expected to help Scottish Labour deputy leadership candidate and Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley.
But a Scottish Labour spokesman said: ‘ We have thousands of registered supporters signing up in Scotland and they are required to confirm support for the aims and values of the Labour Party. Any evidence otherwise will result in them being rejected and their leadership voting rights removed.’
This week, Mr Corbyn exasperated many in Scottish Labour by disclosing that he would be willing to form a pact with the SNP at the next General Election. He said he would support a ‘supply arrangement’ if Labour was in a position to form a minority government.
Mr Corbyn has also signalled he would rip up the Barnett Formula that helps fund Scotland.
Scots receive £1,597 per head more than the English as part of a ‘Union dividend’, largely because rural geography means it costs more to deliver public services.
But Mr Corbyn said a new system could be based on ‘levels of poverty in Scotland, rather than more generally on population and area’.
That could generate a financial black hole north of the Border, putting universal services at risk.
Meanwhile, the full extent of Mr Corbyn’s stranglehold over the Parliamentary Labour Party was laid bare last night. A new analysis showed two-thirds of Labour MPs are directly funded by unions backing his bid to lead the party.
No fewer than 155 Labour MPs have received money from one of the seven unions supporting Mr Corbyn – including the hard-Left Unite, led by Len McCluskey. The amount paid by the seven unions has been just short of £2million.
It will lead to fears they will put pressure on their MPs to support Mr Corbyn.
The general secretary of one of the Corbyn-backing unions, the CWU, last week described Blairism as a ‘virus’ in the Labour Party to which Mr Corbyn is the ‘antidote’.
The veteran socialist’s prospectus includes spending billions renationalising privatised industries including gas, electricity, nuclear, rail and Royal Mail.
Mr also wants to scrap the Trident nuclear deterrent, hold a referendum in Ulster on a united Ireland and reduce corporate tax relief and subsidies.
Earlier this week, the Daily Mail revealed that his spending commitments would cost £55billion a year – meaning higher tax, higher borrowing or deep cuts elsewhere.
The result of the Scottish Labour leadership contest will be announced on August 15 and the UK equivalent on September 12.
‘Voting rights removed’