LABOUR’S “purge” of would-be voters in its leadership contest has reduced the number by more than 55,000, representing one in 10 participants, according to figures released by the party yesterday.
When registration closed two weeks ago, Labour said some 610,000 people were eligible to vote.
But following a vetting process amid concerns the election was being infiltrated by political rivals, the total electorate is now expected to be around 554,000.
Of those barred just 3,100 were on the grounds that they did not share the party’s “aims and values” while most were for not being on the electoral role or being up to date with their party membership fees. Many union affiliates were ruled out too because they were already due to vote as party members. In a bid to calm concerns acting leader Harriet Harman yesterday insisted there will be no doubt about the “integrity” of the election.
Speaking after a meeting with the four candidates – Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper, Jeremy Corbyn and Liz Kendall – she insisted every effort was being made to weed out those who were trying to skew the result.
She defended her handling of the process, which has seen policy debates largely overshadowed by fears opponents are manipulating the system to ensure victory for left candidate Corbyn.
“Those people who don’t support the aims and values of the Labour Party are not entitled to vote and we will continue the process of verification, of making sure that those who do not support our aims and values but are trying to vote – trying to cheat their way into the system – that they are identified and their vote is cancelled,” she said. “That will carry on right up until the last minute.”
At a BBC Radio 5 Live hustings earlier, frontrunner Corbyn branded claims the race was being fixed by infiltrators “nonsense”.
“There are a few Tory MPs I understand tried to register, got rejected. End of story,” he said. Shadow Health Secretary Burnham suggested there was a problem, but said he would not attempt to challenge the result in court even if he was narrowly defeated. “After this Labour has had a vibrant debate, a good debate. But by God, let’s move forward and attack the real enemy, the Conservative Party,” he said.
Shadow Home Secretary Cooper said the contest must not get distracted into just talking about process when so many people had yet to vote.
Kendall, who admitted she was “quite a long way behind” in the race, said she thought the numbers of ‘infiltrators’ who would be voting was a “tiny minority”.
According to the figures released by Labour yesterday the total number eligible to vote is now 553,954, including 292,973 full party members – nearly 106,000 more than at the General Election. There are 148,182 affiliated supporters and 112,799 registered supporters.
According to the party, all applications to take part in the ballot have now been “administratively processed” – checked against the electoral register. Some 15% were struck off because they were not on the electoral register.
Enquiries to ensure applicants share Labour’s “aims and values” are being carried out round the clock and seven days a week by 70 staff in Newcastle, more than 30 staff in London and more than 30 elsewhere in the UK.
Questionable cases are sent to a panel of elected members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) for a decision on whether they are eligible.
Of 3,502 considered by the panel, 3,138 have been ruled ineligible – including 1,972 registered supporters who paid £3 to join the vote.
Some 400 applicants were found to be Tory members or supporters, and 1,900 members or supporters of the Green Party. Sources said the bulk of supporters had now been assessed to see whether they need to go before a panel, and the numbers ruled ineligible are not expected to rise significantly.
During the hustings debate Corbyn insisted Labour’s problem at the General Election had been that it was “not offering an alternative to austerity”.
“My suggestion is that we need serious investment in infrastructure, not through expensive private finance initiative but through public investment, and I am suggesting a people’s quantitative easing which will provide that necessary finance to kick-start the development of the economy – not just in London and the south-east, but in the north and Scotland as well,” he said.
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