Labour leadership: Keir Starmer’s team urge party bosses to intervene over ‘unfair’ hacking probe

Race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn descends into acrimony

Keir Starmer‘s leadership campaign has urged Labour bosses to intervene over ”unfair” allegations of a data breach by members of his team.

The race to succeed Jeremy Corbyn descended into acrimony after Labour informed the data watchdog of allegations that Sir Keir’s team had breached strict rules by hacking into the party’s membership database.

Ex-Labour MP Jenny Chapman, the chair of Sir Keir’s campaign, said the accusations were “utter nonsense” and called on Labour’s general secretary, Jennie Formby, to withdraw the complaint.

The allegations emerged as Labour investigated a separate complaint into claims that rival candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey had shared links to a Labour phone-banking system called Dialogue with volunteers, which could have given them access to more than half a million party members.

Her team insist they have done nothing wrong and it is understood that party officials have not found any evidence to substantiate the claims.

But Labour has now reported Sir Keir’s team to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for an alleged breach, which sources say occurred checking out the allegation that Ms Long-Bailey may have broken the rules.

Ms Chapman, a former shadow Brexit minister, told BBC Politics Live: ”This is utter nonsense, this is something Labour Party members will be just having their heads in their hands over. This is not what we want to see.

“They need to withdraw that allegation because its so serious and it is affecting those two individuals, who have been named publicly.

“I think they need to withdraw that because there is no evidence to support that allegation because it just simply didn’t happen.”

Asked whether Ms Formby should intervene, she said: “That allegation needs to be withdrawn because it is unfair to make an allegation as serious as that.

“Whether or not there is a campaign going on isn’t the point.”

Sir Keir took an early lead in the leadership race by scooping support from key trade unions and local parties but he faces a challenge from Ms Long-Bailey, who is regarded as the left-wing successor to Mr Corbyn.

Wigan MP Lisa Nandy is also on the ballot paper, while Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, is struggling to win sufficient support from affiliated groups.

Leadership candidates are not supposed to have access to Labour’s 500,000-plus membership lists until the nominations window closes on 14 February.

A spokesperson for Ms Long-Bailey’s campaign said: “The investigation into Keir Starmer’s campaign over an alleged data breach should not be allowed to distract from a moment of significant importance in determining the future direction of our party.

“As Rebecca’s campaign has said previously, the accessibility of members’ data stemmed from a failure to close Dialogue at the end of the general election campaign.”

Ms Formby has written to all candidates following the reports about alleged misuse of membership data and party systems.

A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour party takes its legal responsibilities for data protection, and the security and integrity of its data and systems, extremely seriously.

“We have written to all leadership candidates to remind them of their obligations under the law and to seek assurances that membership data will not be misused.”

Mr Corbyn’s successor will be announced on 4 April, along with Labour’s new deputy leader.