Labour is challenging a High Court ruling giving recent members a vote in its leadership contest, with the appeal hearing expected on Thursday.
The party lost a legal challenge to its rules banning anyone who joined as a member after 12 January from taking part unless they paid an extra £25.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Labour’s appeal was “disappointing”. The party said it would defend the right of its governing NEC “to uphold the rule book”. The court’s decision, handed down on Monday, could add between 126,592 and 150,000 people to the list of those eligible to vote in the contest – according to different estimates. The ruling is thought likely to benefit leader Jeremy Corbyn over challenger Owen Smith, who earlier branded Mr Corbyn “useless” and said he had “fractured” the Labour Party.
Mr Corbyn, speaking in Bristol, where he is attending a campaign rally, said: “The judge seemed very clear that his decision was all members of the party should have a right to vote in the leadership contest. Surely that has to be the right decision.”
A Labour spokesman said: “The Procedures Committee of the NEC has decided that the Labour Party will appeal [against] this ruling in order to defend the NEC’s right, as Labour’s governing body, to uphold the rule book, including the use of freeze dates.”
Mr Smith is calling for the leadership contest – due to end on 24 September – to be extended “so that all members have the opportunity to engage with Jeremy and me before making their choice”.
Full Article: Labour leadership: Party to appeal against voting rights ruling – BBC News.