Corbyn’s allies aiming to cling on for decades

SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT JEREMY CORBYN’S Leftwing allies are plotting to tighten their grip on the Labour Party with new rules to keep moderate MPs out of power for decades.

The Labour leader’s supporters are increasingly confident that Mr Corbyn will defeat Owen Smith, a former shadow cabinet minister, in the leadership election.

A poll by YouGov last week put support for Mr Corbyn on 62 per cent to Mr Smith’s 38 per cent.

The leadership result will fringe in Parliament, virtually guaranteeing that they could always muster enough support to be included in the national ballot of members.

With Labour members currently far more left-wing than the party’s MPs, any candidate from Mr Corbyn’s wing would stand a strong chance of winning. Last year he was elected with 59.5 per cent of the members’ vote.

Caroline Flint, the former shadow Cabinet minister, said the reform was being nicknamed the “McDonnell amendment” as it could help John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, to succeed Mr Corbyn one day, even though he lacks support from MPs.

“This amendment might be designed as a golden ticket for McDonnell, but in reality it is a golden ticket to any maverick, ego-driven, havea-go MP,” she wrote in

magazine. “Politics is a team game. Recognising the collective effort required in parliament, any candidate who cannot get the backing of 15 per cent of the people they will lead clearly will not have the credibility to unite the parliamentary team and provide an effective opposition to the Tories.”

The Boundary Commission will also publish its proposals to overhaul parliamentary constituencies next week, reducing the number of MPs. Some analysts have suggested that Labour could lose 30 seats.

A separate plan, mooted by Mr Corbyn in July, would see Labour MPs forced to reapply for their own seats ahead of the next election, a move that many fear would result in radical grassroots members purging the party of moderate candidates.