Major boost for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour members win High Court battle over leadership vote

Inspirational? Jeremy Corbyn now shares his surname with 15 children born in 2015
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Jeremy Corbyn was given a major boost today when five new members of the Labour Party won a High Court battle over their legal right to vote in the forthcoming leadership election.

The party’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee, had imposed a rule which meant that anyone who joined after January 12 had to re-register and pay an extra £25 to become a “registered supporter” in a few days last month in order to have a say in the leadership contest.

But the five members took legal action funded by crowd-sourcing.

The High Court ruled in their favour today.

The judgement is expected to allow 130,000 Labour members now to be able to vote, many of them Corbyn supporters.

It comes as senior London MP David Lammy raised growing fears that Labour’s “internecine war” risked splitting the party.

The Tottenham MP (pictured) accused wings of the party of being engaged in a clash which they had been fighting 'since student union times'

The former minister predicted that Jeremy Corbyn was likely to hang on as Labour leader but many MPs will still refuse to back him.

The Tottenham MP also accused wings of the party of being engaged in a clash which they had been fighting “since student union times”.

”We are in danger of splitting as a party,” he told Radio 4’s Westminster Hour.

“There is a fracture running through the Labour party - this internecine war that we’re caught up in this summer is a huge distraction at a very serious time for our country.”

He stressed he was “serially depressed” at Labour’s infighting, adding: “There’s some that might feel that those on the hard left of the party and those on the right of the party are caught up in a war that they’ve been fighting since student union times.”

He declined to publicly back either Mr Corbyn or his challenger Pontypridd MP Owen Smith.

But he added: “‘He (Jeremy Corbyn) was elected just a year ago.

“It looks to me like he’s probably going to win. I don’t know where that leaves us after we’ve finished this horrendous fight.”

A number of MPs seem highly unlikely to back Islington North MP Mr Corbyn even if he wins by a considerable margin when the leadership contest ends in September.

MPs backed a motion of no confidence in Mr Corbyn by 172-40.

Ilford South Labour MP Mike Gapes tweeted this morning: “I’m Labour. I belong to a political party not a leadership cult. I have no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn as leader.”

While another senior Labour MP said: “There is a massive disconnect between Jeremy Corbyn and the electorate including a big part of the Labour electorate.”

Recent polls have given the Tories under new Prime Minister Theresa May a double digit lead.

Former shadow work and pensions secretary Mr Smith and Mr Corbyn were both giving speeches today as they stepped up their campaigns.

Speaking in Newcastle, Mr Smith was due to warn that Britain is “on the cliff edge of another recession” following the Brexit vote and called for urgent action to prop up the economy.

He also outlined plans for “a new industrial revolution” to make the UK into “the workshop of the world”.

“For too long, successive governments have allowed our economy to be too reliant on financial services and the creation of insecure, low-skilled, and low-paid jobs,” he was set to say.

“We must have a bold mission for Britain - to undergo a new industrial revolution.”

Mr Smith is calling for the British public to have a second say to endorse the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, a move that Mr Corbyn has so far not backed, insisting that the party must “abide by” the result of the June 23 referendum.

Mr Corbyn, who was due to address a rally in Bristol this evening, has not ruled out trying to stay on as leader even if Labour loses the 2020 General Election.

Asked if he was prepared to step down if Labour continued to badly trail the Tories in the polls and lose council seats, Mr Corbyn told the Huffington Post: “The party members control what happens. They will decide, one way or another.”

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