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Jeremy Corbyn plans to make it easier for his supporters to force out MPs seen as opponents of his leadership, one of his closest allies has revealed.

The Labour leader also supports moves which would have the effect of further sidelining unions, according to Jon Lansman, who launched the grassroots Momentum campaign which has been key to keeping Mr Corbyn in power.

In a secret recording obtained by the Mirror, Mr Lansman laid bare the plot to beef-up the system of trigger ballots.

The system means a local party decides whether to automatically back a sitting MP for the next election or carry out a new selection procedure - which can lead to the MP being ousted by members before facing ordinary voters.

And Mr Lansman’s bid to curb unions’ power is set to enrage traditional activists and workers’ leaders.

He said of trigger ballots: “I totally agree with them.

“It is Jeremy’s intention, when we finish the selections in the marginal seats, to move onto trigger ballots.

(Image: Rex Features)

“There are also some rule changes on the agenda which are important which would improve the trigger ballot process which increase the majority - the proportion of the selectorate which an MP needs to have to avoid a deselection process.”

Last month, key Corbyn ally Christine Shawcroft, who quit the party’s ruing national executive committee after defending a council candidate accused of anti-Semitism, called for unions’ influence to be curbed.

She said: “Nothing would induce me to support a candidate from a major trade union - they stick it to the rank and file members time after time after time.

“It’s also time to support disaffiliation of the unions from the Labour Party.

“The party belongs to us, the members.”

Heralding a fresh attempt to seize power from the unions, Mr Lansman defended a planned shake-up saying: “It also changes the way that members’ branches and affiliated branches are treated, because at the moment, it is possible for very large numbers of trade union branches that don’t necessarily have many members to outvote members’ branches that have large numbers of members.

(Image: PA)

“Now, I am very much in favour of union participation in the process, but this reform would enable and would require that an MP would have to have two thirds of members’ branches and two thirds of union branches in order to avoid a deselection process.

“So obviously, MPs - a great deal of them have overwhelming support - would get away without having a full selection.”

He added: “See, I think that the benefit of trigger ballots, and indeed in mandatory re-selection, is that it is more about accountability than it is about de-selections.”

In a sign of how Mr Corbyn and the existing hierarchy hope to create a legacy of transforming the party, the Momentum boss also talked about the need to “future-proof the rule book”.

He was speaking to about 60 people at a Greenwich Momentum event at the Charlton Assembly Rooms in south east London on March 26.

His comments were widely applauded.

A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy hasn’t expressed any intention or taken any position on changes to the rule book relating to trigger ballots.”

What are trigger ballots?

Critics say trigger ballots can be exploited by Labour members hostile to moderate MPs who they believe are unhelpful to the party leader.

But supporters say they hand power back to individual members to back or sack their representatives.

Accelerating or strengthening the system would mean MPs find it harder to resist moves to oust them.

Currently, sitting Labour MPs face a trigger ballot where each local branch, union branch and affiliated society branch in a constituency gets a single bloc vote on whether to keep them before a general election.

Only if they lose the crunch vote do they face a full-scale selection by local members, pitted against rival candidates.

Mr Corbyn won Labour’s leadership in a landslide victory in 2015.

He was re-elected a year later.

Following his second triumph, loyal activists hoped to force a series of trigger ballots to find candidates more in tune with their wishes - and those of the leadership - before the next general election.

But Theresa May’s decision to call a snap poll in June 2017 hampered the moves.

Mr Corbyn’s supporters now want a field of candidates they support in place before the next election, due in 2022.

However, many pundits expect an early poll as the Government battles with Brexit and its lack of a Conservative Commons majority.