If Jeremy Corbyn becomes the next Labour leader, there will be a lot of finger pointing at Ed Miliband. Today’s Sunday Times reports that 140,000 new members are projected to sign up to vote in the leadership contest — the equivalent of the entire Conservative party. According to the paper, many of these new activists are taking advantage of Miliband’s voting reforms and come from hard-left groups. It’s a fair assumption to say they are joining to back Corbyn for leader.
If this projection turns out to be true, it might explain Corbynmania, as well as raising the possibility that Corbyn might actually win. The MP for Bassetlaw John Mann has called upon Harriet Harman to halt on the leadership contest while the situation can be investigated:
‘It should be halted. It is becoming a farce with longstanding members . . . in danger of getting trumped by people who have opposed the Labour party and want to break it up, expressly want to break it up — some of it is the Militant Tendency types coming back in.’
This 140k number is made up of 52k new members who have joined Labour since the general election — putting the party’s total membership in the region of 256k.
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