Court Ruling Bars Thousands Of Members From Labour Contest

Labour's ruling body has won its bid to block 130,000 new party members from voting in the leadership election.

The Court of Appeal ruled the party was within its rights to block members who joined after 12 January from voting in the contest.

It overturned a test case ruling on Monday in favour of five members who said they were unlawfully "frozen out" from voting in the contest.

Lord Justice Beatson, sitting with Lady Justice Macur and Lord Justice Sales, announced the decision this afternoon.

"On the correct interpretation of the party rules, the National Executive Committee has the power to set the criteria for members to be eligible to vote in the leadership election in the way that it did," Lord Justice Beatson said.

The decision could be seen as a boost for Owen Smith, who is taking on Jeremy Corbyn in the contest.

There have been suggestions the majority of the recruits barred from voting would have backed Mr Corbyn.

When asked if he was celebrating the court ruling, Mr Smith told Sky News: "No, not at all. 

"I am here in Corby in the east of England, talking to party members and I will carry on doing what I am doing which is getting out there, making my case."

He added that the NEC is the "correct body" to set the rules for the party.

"I don't think by and large we should be in the courts debating these things," he said.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said the decision was wrong, "both legally and democratically".

The spokesman said: "Crucial to the outcome today was the introduction of a new argument by the Labour Party HQ's lawyers.

"They invoked an obscure clause in the Labour Party rules (Chapter 4, Clause II, 1.A), which could be read as giving the NEC the right to ignore all of the rules laid out for leadership elections.

"In other words, this is a 'make it up as you go along' rule. We do not think that making it up as you go along is a reasonable way to conduct democracy in our party.

"Serious questions must be raised, however, over why and how the NEC Procedures Committee brought this appeal.

Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn

"In doing so, it effectively risked new members' money on an attempt to disenfranchise them."

The High Court declared on Monday that refusing five members the vote would be an unlawful breach of the party's contract.

Lawyers for the five had argued that the NEC had no power to retrospectively freeze a full member's ability to vote.

The NEC said in a statement that it "welcomed" the decision.

It added: "It is crucial to the Labour Party that our governing body has the authority to debate, decide and implement the procedures, timetable and voting eligibility for our internal elections and selections.
 
"The original Court decision had wide-ranging implications for the party and the authority of our governing body. It was the correct decision to seek clarification on this fundamental principle in the Court of Appeal."