Between 100 and 150 Green Party election candidates have been prevented from joining Britain’s Labour Party as it struggles to tackle infiltration by far-left activists.
Labour insiders are increasingly worried that thousands of hard-left supporters may have joined in the past few weeks just to vote for hard-line socialist Jeremy Corbyn as party leader.
MPs have indicated that the party will decide next week whether or not to suspend the leadership election to allocate more time to weed out entryism. An unnamed MP told The Independent: “There is panic at Labour headquarters as more evidence emerges.”
The number of ejected Green candidates represents about four per cent of those who stood for the party at the general election in May. The number of undetected Green party supporters who have either returned or switched to Labour is likely to be in the thousands.
Well. Just to be sure I have cancelled my Green Party membership in order to register as a Lab supporter to vote for Corbyn. Quite excited..
— Michelle Davis (@michelledavis) August 6, 2015
“Exodus” of Corbyn-voting Greens isn’t so much entryism as return to social-democrat tent by those who felt unrepresented by new labour.
— Carl Packman (@CarlPackman) August 6, 2015
@chrisneill Yes, J Corbyn is carefully steaming the Green Vote, smothering it with organic non-salted butter and making it feel good again. — Kerry Shale (@kerryshale) August 6, 2015
Labour has confirmed that 65,000 of their 275,000 members have signed up since May. Of those, around half have paid the £3 fee introduced by Ed Miliband, and the other half are trade union members joining as affiliated supporters.
A further 20,000 members have joined since these figures were released, including 7,000 over a single weekend. Some of the newcomers will be Conservatives, part of the ‘Tories For Corbyn’ campaign.
Corbyn dismissed claims of infiltration at an overflowing rally of enthusiastic supporters, attended by Breitbart London, as “absolute nonsense.”
Multiple polls have confirmed Corbyn is on track to win the Labour leadership contest. His policies include ending all cuts, the introduction of a Soviet-style “planned economy,” support for full nuclear disarmament, a “united Ireland” and open-door immigration.
Even if he loses now, it is widely thought he will be offered a seat in Labour’s shadow cabinet. His mere presence in the contest is pulling other candidates to the left, with Andy Burnham, Shadow Health Secretary and second in the race, promising yesterday to renationalise the railways and further increase the minimum wage for young workers.
“@Mike_J_Cox: Great news Andy, just one thing, how will you fund nationalisation ?” > Will wait for franchises to expire then let public bid
— Andy Burnham (@andyburnhammp) August 4, 2015
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