Jeremy Corbyn warned not to ‘punish’ party officials for blocking his supporters from voting
The Labour leader is also thought to be about to 'clear-out' the party's headquarters
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A former Labour Foreign Secretary has warned Jeremy Corbyn against “bullying and spite” as fears grow of reprisals against party officials following the bitter legal fight over the leadership contest.
Margaret Beckett’s words came as one senior Corbyn-backing figure said a “clear-out” of the party’s Southside HQ was coming if the current leader wins the contest as expected.
Ms Beckett told The Independent that Mr Corbyn must not seek to “punish” Labour’s General Secretary Iain McNicol or his staff for fighting to block 130,000 potentially Corbyn-backing members voting in the contest.
After the decision was made, Mr Corbyn said the General Secretary would have to answer to the party’s “new” ruling body, where his influence has been boosted by an influx of supportive members.
Ms Beckett said: “If what Jeremy is saying is that he is going to punish the General Secretary and staff for decisions that were perfectly and properly made, that seems to me not like 'kinder gentler politics', but like bullying and spite."
She added: “It does seem to me that there is a risk of people around Jeremy and perhaps Jeremy himself, thinking that what matters is: ‘does he get the decision he wants' not 'is this what's right in law'.”
On Friday, the Court of Appeal upheld an appeal by Labour’s governing body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), against a High Court ruling that the 130,000 people who joined the party between January and July should get a vote in the contest.
Ms Beckett, who sits on the NEC, pointed out that the committee took a decision to freeze members out of the vote while also defending Mr Corbyn’s right to be on the contest ballot.
She added: “It's not the responsibility of the GS to decide whether he likes the NEC's decision or not.
“That's not his authority. It's his job to defend the NEC's decision, which he did."
The members who took the NEC to court in a bid to reverse the freeze, said on Sunday they would not pursue the case in the Supreme Court.
But the fight has angered some of Mr Corbyn’s supporters, who are emboldened following internal elections last week which gave them a tighter grip on the NEC.
A senior frontbencher told the Independent: “There is going to be a clear-out of the party. There has been open warfare between the Leader’s office and party HQ."
"Having seen what has happened and what has been happening, it can't be the case that if Jeremy wins again he just sits back and nothing happens and he lets them crack on.
"[Corbyn supporters] have got the NEC now and they are going to do what Corbyn was never able to do before, mount a challenge on Southside.”
The ongoing conflict marks the start of one of the most critical weeks of leadership contest campaigning, with ballots due to be sent out next Monday.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments