Labour changes rules to hide who votes for which leader and Mayor hopeful

Labour will keep secret how party members, trade unionists and supporters vote in the summer contests for the leadership and the Mayor of London, the Evening Standard has learned.

Party chiefs ruled that they will only publish the overall votes for each candidate, without breaking it down into different categories of voter.

The decision means that the public will not know whether the winner owes a debt to trade union backing — a charge that dogged former leader Ed Miliband.

It comes a day after the Standard revealed that 65,000 union members have signed up to vote in the contests, which means they could have a critical say. A party spokesman confirmed the decision was taken within the past few days by a sub-committee of the National Executive and said it was a logical change following the introduction of new rules.

“Labour’s new leader will be elected by one member, one vote,” said the spokesman in a statement. “The votes of all those who vote — members, registered affiliates and registered supporters — have equal weight. The publication of the results will reflect that.”

But the decision dismayed some MPs. David Lammy, who is running for Mayor, said: “I’m surprised they are saying everyone is the same. It would be very helpful to see how everyone voted. For example, it is important to understand how those members of the public voted who are not party members and not in a union either.”

John Woodcock, a backer of Liz Kendall’s leadership bid, added: “The level of support shown for each candidate by the different kinds of voters in the leadership election will be of interest to the public, to Labour supporters and each of the leadership campaigns.

“It is hard to imagine the information will stay hidden so surely it would be better to be open about it from the moment the result is announced.”

The Unite union has endorsed Left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, while the GMB has yet to make a final decision.

Under new rules, members of the public are being allowed to vote for the if they pay £3 to become registered supporters. Their votes will count equally with union and party members.

The rules of the 2010 Labour leadership contest used separate ballots for members, unions and Labour MPs. Labour published how each section divided — which revealed that unions backed Ed Miliband while ordinary party members preferred his brother David.

Ken Livingstone’s selection as mayoral candidate in 2010 was clear-cut — he beat Oona King two-to-one among both party members and trade unionists.