Party was wrong to decide in July that only members who joined at least six months before are eligible, complainants say

The high court will rule on Monday on whether 130,000 people who recently became Labour party members will be allowed to vote in the upcoming leadership election, after a lawyer representing a group of them argued they had been unfairly excluded from the process.

The five new members, making the case on behalf of a bigger contingent who have crowdfunded their legal fees, are challenging Labour over contract law. They say the party’s national executive committee (NEC) was wrong to decide in July that only members who joined at least six months before could vote.

Stephen Cragg QC, representing the five, told the court that Labour’s rulebook made no provision for such a distinction and did not give the NEC powers to implement one.

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He also argued that when the members joined, the Labour website and other communications said they would be “a key part of the team”, and thus eligible to vote in any leadership election. No prior leadership battle had seen a retrospective cut-off date for membership to qualify for a vote, he said.

Cragg told the judge, Mr Justice Justice Hickinbottom, that the members had been misled. “They paid their dues and found to their surprise they had been excluded from the present election,” he said.

“We say they have been wrongly excluded by breach of contract from the right to vote. We say there is nothing in the Labour party rule book that suggests a limit on the members who can take part in the leadership election.”

Labour and its general secretary, Iain McNicol, represented by Peter Oldham QC, argue that its rules entitled it to implement the cut-off date, which the NEC is able do as part of the election timetable.

The NEC meeting on 12 July decided that only members who had joined before 12 January could vote. The party did, however, allow newly registered supporters, a lesser category of member, to vote in the election at a cost of £25.

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The members denied a vote have been seen as likely to be more supportive of the incumbent, Jeremy Corbyn. He is not a party in the case but has expressed concern at the NEC decision.

Four named members are challenging the decision: Christine Evangelou, the Rev Edward Leir, Hannah Fordham and Chris Granger.

The fifth, named in the court papers only as FM because he is under 18, is arguing on the additional basis of age discrimination. Those 14 or over can join Labour, but registered supporters must be adults.

With the voting lists for the contest between Corbyn and Owen Smith to be finalised on 8 August, Hickinbottom said he would deliver a ruling on Monday morning. He told Cragg and Oldham he would email both sides a draft judgement over the weekend so they could confer in advance over any appeals and the issue of costs.

Evangelou told the Press Association outside the hearing that she was “disgusted that they are trying to take my vote away, and the votes of people like me”.

The 41-year-old from Enfield, north London, said she had joined to support Corbyn, and believed many others among the 130,000 denied a vote would have done the same.

“I think it is fair to assume that most of the astonishing number of members who have recently joined wish to vote for Corbyn,” she said. “If you are going to exclude over 100,000 voters, you are not going to get the full picture of what people actually want.”

It is the second high court hearing connected to the Labour leadership battle in a week. Last Thursday Mr Justice Foskett, rejected a challenge by Michael Foster, a Labour donor, to the NEC’s decision that Corbyn could automatically stand for re-election as leader without any nominations from Labour MPs.