Labour’s national executive committee has banned those who’ve been members for less than six months from voting in the leadership election.

In addition, those signing up as supporters to get a vote will now have to pay £25 instead of the £3 that was charged last summer, when Jeremy Corbyn was elected.

Here recent party joiners give their views on the new rules.

Matthew Johnston, 20, Stockton-on-Tees: The website says when you join that you are ‘eligible to vote’

I joined just under a month ago as I believe the Labour party is best placed to run a post-Brexit Britain. We face a lot of uncertainties now , and workers’ rights and jobs are at risk. I do not believe the Conservatives can protect working people.

As someone who wholeheartedly agree with Labour’s core principles, I felt like previously the party hasn’t been truly representative. Now it is going in a direction that I agree with and after hearing of a potential coup, it was my democratic duty to join. I’m not happy with the decision to deliberately disenfranchise the new voters. How do they expect them to engage with the party now? On the website, when you join, it says “You are eligible to vote in leadership elections”.

I have already written to the party about plans to ban me from voting, and have yet to receive a response. I have also spoken to my constituency and they mentioned that the six-month rule has been in place for a while now. However, the fact that it mentions we are eligible on the website brings this into question. Either that or it’s deliberately misleading and a case of misrepresentation.

John Lincoln, 71, south Lincolnshire: I am angry that the Labour elite are trying to manipulate the rules

I joined a few weeks ago to vote for Jeremy Corbyn because I see the possibility at last of the new politics we need in this country beginning to take hold.

I am extremely angry and disgusted at the way the Labour elite are trying to manipulate the rules to ensure Corbyn is not voted in again. For the Labour party to do this to over 100,000 members who joined in good faith is unforgivable.



As a new member, who has not yet received the paperwork, I don’t know where I stand with regards to the terms and conditions for membership. I can’t even attend a local party meeting because these have been cancelled as result of a centralised diktat for all local constituency party meetings until after the leadership election. I am livid.

It seems the central elite of the Labour party are trying to stifle all activity in support of Corbyn. All of us who support the new politics he espouses should fight tooth and nail (respectfully and politely) to ensure the central elite fail to achieve their aims.

Ed Sherwood, 26, Manchester: I’m not some devout Corbyn supporter hellbent on cultural Marxism

I joined the Labour party about a month ago to try to make a meaningful contribution to public life. The plan to ban voters is deeply patronising and unhelpful to our party’s public presentation. I’ve followed politics closely for most of my adult life and I’m not some devout Corbyn supporter hellbent on cultural Marxism.

The £25 supporter fee is a gentrifying slap in the face to genuine democratic values, and wilfully excludes people the party is supposed to protect from the decision-making process. It’s everything that’s wrong with the modern Labour party in an expensive nutshell. I’ll probably join a union or the LGBT faction to get around the rule, like anyone else with half a brain and access to the internet. I’ve long supported Angela Eagle as an electorally viable successor to Corbyn, but she’s effectively killed off her own career now.

Rebecca Roncoroni, 51, Isle of Wight: I am frankly stunned at the abrupt change in rules

As an ex-community psychiatric nurse and single mother of three, I know firsthand how hard life can be for many in this country. Jeremy Corbyn speaks my language, with his compassionate beliefs and egalitarian policies. He is an honest politician and I want to support that.

I am frankly stunned at the abrupt change in rules. When I signed up to be a full member it stated that I would be able to vote in the leadership election. The last leadership election allowed people to vote regardless of length of membership, and set a precedent. Whatever excuse they give for this mass disenfranchisement is completely negated by the fact that anyone can pay £25 as a supporter and vote. It’s a total nonsense.