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Labour party members who have been in the party for less than six months will be barred from taking part in the forthcoming leadership election unless they pay £25.

A crunch meeting of the party's ruling body in London tonight decided leader Jeremy Corbyn will automatically be on the ballot for the contest.

But Labour members who have signed up after Tuesday, January 12 will not eligible to vote.

That means the claimed 100,000 new members the party claims they have attracted since the referendum will be excluded from the process.

But they may still be able to take part in the vote if they're willing to stump up a £25 'registered supporter' fee.

Applications to be a registered supporter will only be open for two days - and it's believed those who became members since January 12 will be allowed to sign up as registered supporters.

poll loading Is January 12 a fair cut off date to vote for the next Labour leader? 0+ VOTES SO FAR Yes, it seems about right No, it should be earlier No, it should be later No, there shouldn't be a cut off date

Details of how to sign up as a registered supporter will be announced on Thursday.

(Image: Christopher Furlong)

The idea of registered supporters was brought in during Ed Miliband's time as Labour leader, and is widely credited with allowing Jeremy Corbyn to win September's leadership contest.

In September the cost of being a registered supporter was just £3.

It's thought many of the registered supporters who signed up to vote for Mr Corbyn have since converted to full membership, but it's unclear whether the bulk of them did this before the six-month cut off date.

The date of the leadership election has also yet to be confirmed.

Mr Corbyn faced a crunch vote to determine whether he needed to gather support of 51 Labour MPs and MEPs ahead of the election in order to take part.

He won the vote to be included on the ballot automatically by 18 votes to 14.