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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been warned that councillors across the country are “uniting” against controversial plans to stop them choosing council leaders.

Nick Forbes, leader of Newcastle City Council, said the proposals were “unworkable and probably illegal”.

He is Labour Group Leader on the Local Government Association and a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

The party leadership is heading for a huge row with councillors over plans to allow local party members to choose council leaders in local authorities where Labour is in charge.

At the moment, council leaders are chosen by councillors themselves.

The proposed changes are included in Labour’s ongoing Democracy Review, which also includes plans to give MPs less control over who can stand for the national party leadership.

In an attempt to reduce opposition, the Democracy Review is to suggest a series of pilot schemes where party members will be involved in choosing leaders, according to reports.

Options include an electoral college with a third councillors, a third trade unionists and a third members. This would mean councillors continued to have a lot of influence over who was elected.

But the idea of a one-member, one-vote ballot is still on the table.

Opponents of the idea say it would plunge local leadership parties into frequent and expensive elections.

(Image: PA)

And because leadership elections would take place after local elections, it would mean voters didn’t know who they were going to get as council leader if they backed Labour at the polls.

Coun Forbes said: “Proposals for directly elected council leaders are in my view unworkable and probably illegal.

“The Labour Party is in danger of spending huge amounts of money on meaningless internal elections rather than campaigning and winning seats.

“The rights of councillors to elect their leader, hold him or her to account and determine policy for their local communities, is at threat.

“And Labour councillors are uniting to tell the party that this is not acceptable.”

The NEC will discuss the proposals at a special meeting on September 4, and if they are approved then they will be discussed at Labour’s Annual Conference in Liverpool, which begins on September 23.

Other proposed changes include cutting the power of MPs to block people standing in leadership contests.

Under the new plans, a candidate for the leadership could be nominated if they are nominated by just 5% of MPs – below the current 10% threshold – as long as they get the support of 10% of local parties or 10% of trade union affiliates.

This could make it harder for MPs to block left-wing candidates.

And regional directors could also face election by rank and file members.