A former cabinet minister in the last Labour government said called for the leadership election to be suspended amid fears that Communists and former members of the Militant Tendency have infiltrated the party. “I absolutely think it is a determined and deliberate attempt to infiltrate the election by powerful unions and it is a very serious threat to the democracy of the party,” the senior figure said. “These are not Labour Party people. I think this is a deliberate attempt to infiltrate the party and distort the basic democracy of the Labour Party.”