Labour moderates fear hard-Left ‘stitch up’ as battle lines are drawn for leadership contest: Party’s ruling body meets to thrash out timetable for race to replace Jeremy Corbyn amid raging infighting

• Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee meeting today to set contest rules
• Moderates fear NEC will try to skew the contest to favour a hard-Left candidate
• NEC is controlled by allies of Jeremy Corbyn who is quitting after election loss

Labour moderates fear the party’s ruling National Executive Committee could try to skew the leadership race to increase the chances of Jeremy Corbyn being replaced by a hard-Left candidate. 

The NEC will meet in central London this afternoon to hammer out the rules and timetable for the contest. 

But there are fears that the NEC – a body which is controlled by allies of the current Labour leader – could move to ‘stitch up’ the contest. 

The committee could do that by making it more difficult for new members to join the party by increasing the cost of doing so or by imposing a tight or even retrospective deadline for joining to stop new members from being eligible to vote.  

Moderate candidates in the race like Sir Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips believe new members – or returning ones who quit under Mr Corbyn’s leadership – who have joined Labour since its general election defeat could be crucial to the outcome. 

It is thought that any move to restrict new members from voting could boost Rebecca Long-Bailey’s chances of victory. 

The shadow business secretary is yet to formally announce her candidacy for the top job but she is believed to have the backing of the current leadership and is viewed as the candidate most likely to continue with so-called Corbynism. 

Jeremy Corbyn, pictured after he retained his Islington North seat at the election, will step down as Labour leader in the coming months after leading his party to a crushing defeat 

Jess Phillips, pictured on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, has warned Labour’s NEC against trying to skew the leadership contest in favour of a hard-Left candidate

Any move to reduce voter eligibility or access to membership is likely to spark fury.  

Ms Phillips, the MP for Birmingham Yardley, warned the NEC against stopping new party members from voting in the leadership contest. 

Asked yesterday if she trusted the committee not to stitch up the contest, Ms Phillips said: ‘Do you know what? I absolutely do trust because the reality is is that at the moment there is a huge amount of buzz around this contest, for lots of different reasons and some of it is nice things being said online and not so nice things being said online. 

‘But I think that actually in the public glare, lots of people joining the Labour Party, for the NEC to then say we are not interested in you [being included in the leadership contest] that would look so incredibly bad for the Labour Party in a time when it needs to stop looking just inside itself and look outwards.’

Mr Corbyn announced his intention to stand down as leader in the immediate aftermath of Labour’s disastrous election results which saw the party sink to just 202 MPs.  

He will remain in post until his successor is appointed with the NEC expected to announce that the contest will start tomorrow and then conclude in late March. 

Meanwhile, there could be a second showdown at the NEC today amid reports that allies of Mr Corbyn want to shake-up the structure of the party to further secure the hard-Left’s grip on the Labour machine before Mr Corbyn leaves his post.  

There are currently five candidates who have formally declared their candidacy in the race to replace him: Sir Keir, Ms Phillips, Clive Lewis, Lisa Nandy and Emily Thornberry. 

Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner had been tipped for a leadership run but she is expected to launch her candidacy for the role of deputy leader at an event in Stockport today. 

The candidates who have announced they will stand in the contest have tried to stress how they would be different to Mr Corbyn. 

Ms Phillips yesterday would not commit to re-nationalising all key utilities and said the party’s free broadband proposal was unbelievable.

Sir Keir Starmer, pictured in Stevenage yesterday, is the current favourite to be the next Labour leader

Rebecca Long-Bailey is yet to announce her candidacy but she is viewed as Mr Corbyn’s preferred choice for the top job

She also told The Andrew Marr Show she would ‘wait and see’ how Brexit turns out, but hinted a return to the EU would be possible under her leadership. 

Sir Keir, the shadow Brexit secretary, told the same programme that Labour lost the public’s trust over a lack of clarity on Brexit, anti-Semitism, and a ‘feeling that the manifesto was overloaded’. 

But he insisted that ‘we shouldn’t retreat from the radical’ as he outlined his vision for the future.

Ms Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, said the ‘dreadful’ election result was partly because the manifesto ‘just wasn’t convincing because their was too much in it’. 

Ms Nandy, the MP for Wigan, also said the main factor in Labour’s failure was a lack of trust from voters.

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