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Labour Party boss Iain McNicol’s future was thrown into doubt today when one of Jeremy Corbyn’s allies stressed he was in the post at the “will and pleasure” of its National Executive Committee.

General Secretary Mr McNicol angered many Corbyn supporters after the NEC ruled that 130,000 people who joined the party after January 12 could not vote in the leadership contest.

He is also fighting a court battle to uphold the decision, which meant that to vote in the leadership election new members instead had to become “registered supporters” last month and pay an extra £25.

Since the NEC took the stance, its membership has changed and it is now seen as controlled by Corbyn allies.

Legal action has also been launched by five Labour members to overturn the NEC’s controversial stance on the 130,000 voting.

The High Court ruled against the Labour Party and it then took the case to the Court of Appeal, which was expected to pass its judgment today.

Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott said she was not calling for Mr McNicol to go, or expecting him to, but stressed: “The General Secretary serves at the will and pleasure of the NEC and that’s a matter for them, not a matter for MPs.”

She also dismissed warnings from the party’s deputy leader Tom Watson that “Trotskyist entryists” were manipulating young party members to boost support for Mr Corbyn.

“This ‘reds under the beds’ narrative is a complete distraction,” she told BBC radio. “Ordinary party members will tell you that Jeremy has made them believe in politics again, and people should address that... not rehashing stories from the Seventies about Bolsheviks with snow on their boots.”

She stressed that there were strict rules about proscribed organisations and they should be upheld.

Mr Corbyn and leadership challenger Owen Smith clashed last night in a series of heated exchanges at a live hustings in Gateshead.

Former shadow work and pensions secretary Mr Smith refused an offer from Mr Corbyn to serve under his leadership again if he failed to win the forthcoming election.

Mr Smith added that if he won he would “put together a shadow cabinet of all of the talents of the Labour Party” and said Mr Corbyn could not do this because MPs had passed a motion of no confidence in him by 172 to 40.

Mr Smith also claimed that he, not Mr Corbyn, could take Labour to being a government-in-waiting, ready to take power at the next election.

He also accused the Labour leader of only offering lukewarm backing for the campaign to stay in the EU.

But a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: “These kinds of smears only show how little Owen Smith has to offer. Jeremy did 122 campaigning events to stay in the EU.”