Labour members barred from leadership ballot win right to vote

Source: The Guardian

Labour’s governing body was not entitled to bar 130,000 people who recently became party members from voting in the upcoming leadership election, a high court judge has ruled.

The decision by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) that only members who joined before 12 January were eligible had been challenged by five people who were excluded as a result.

A barrister representing the group has accused the NEC of unlawfully freezing them and many others out of the contest between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith.

A decision to allow the excluded members to vote was seen as more likely to benefit the incumbent, Corbyn, in the increasingly bad-tempered leadership race.

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