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Labour leadership: Andy Burnham raises Tory infiltration fears | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Several thousand Conservatives may be planning to vote in the Labour leadership election, Andy Burnham's campaign has said. | |
Michael Dugher, who is chairing Mr Burnham's campaign, called for an "urgent meeting" of candidate teams to address the issue. | |
There are also claims individuals supporting Jeremy Corbyn are being unfairly banned from taking part. | |
Labour said it had "a robust system" to stop "malicious applications". | |
Mr Corbyn, Mr Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall are all standing. | |
Polls suggest Mr Corbyn is the frontrunner. | |
'So desperate' | |
New regulations allow members of the public to sign up to vote as a "registered supporter" for £3. | New regulations allow members of the public to sign up to vote as a "registered supporter" for £3. |
Some have been told their vote will be discounted. | |
Mr Burnham's team has written to Labour's general secretary claiming "a Conservative MP, Conservative media commentators, and Conservative councillors" have all been rejected. | |
The letter added: "This suggests the 121,000 registered supporters could include several thousand Tory infiltrators, as well as supporters of other parties seeking to have a vote in the election." | |
Comedian Jeremy Hardy, meanwhile, suggested the party was seeking to "rig" the election by wrongly barring left-wing supporters of Mr Corbyn from taking part. | |
"The Labour Party might be trying to invite a legal challenge so that they can say 'let's just scrap the election'," Mr Hardy said. "They are so desperate that I wouldn't be surprised." | "The Labour Party might be trying to invite a legal challenge so that they can say 'let's just scrap the election'," Mr Hardy said. "They are so desperate that I wouldn't be surprised." |
Former Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay also accused the party of misusing canvass returns - collected at election time to gauge the level of support for candidates - to find people who have previously voted for other parties. | Former Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay also accused the party of misusing canvass returns - collected at election time to gauge the level of support for candidates - to find people who have previously voted for other parties. |
He said the exclusion process had been "arbitrary" and "unfair". | |
"The Labour party has got to stop today doing this," he added. | |
Iraq apology | |
But a Labour spokesman said the party was confident "the processes of verification and handling applications are compliant with the Data Protection Act." | |
He added: "All applications to join the Labour Party as a member, affiliate or supporter are verified and those who are identified by our verification team as being candidates, members or supporters of another political party will be denied a vote." | |
Also on Friday, Mr Corbyn said he will formally apologise on behalf of the Labour Party for taking the country to war with Iraq if elected leader. | |
Mr Corbyn told the Guardian the party would "never again flout the United Nations and international law". | |
Labour leadership contest | Labour leadership contest |