Almost 60,000 people — nearly a tenth of those who registered — have been banned from voting in the Labour leadership ballot, the party has said.
Labour claimed, however, that only 3,000 of them were “cheats” — infiltrators who support other parties, including 400 Tories and 1,900 Green party members or supporters.
Despite the concerns about infiltrators, all four candidates yesterday ruled out mounting a legal challenge to contest the result.
A significant proportion of the rejected applicants were turned down because they were not on the electoral roll. Many people who had signed up twice were also discovered. Every person who applied for a vote was “processed” but the vetting was continuing, a party spokesman said.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, one of Britain’s largest trade unions, has had his ballot cancelled. He had voted for Mr Corbyn. The union has in the past threatened to stand candidates against Labour in elections.
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Brian Eno, the musician who has supported the Lib Dems’ stance against the Iraq war, has also been barred.
The figures were released after a crisis meeting of the leadership candidates. A source said it had turned into a “high farce” before it had begun as Labour headquarters insisted on secrecy, banning those attending from knowing the location, even as they were being driven to the business park.
During the meeting, the three centrist camps raised concerns about the vetting process. Liz Kendall is understood to have called for the party to use canvass returns data to weed out BNP supporters. The centrist trio also wants a breakdown of ballots, by category of voter, to be released after the result. Jeremy Corbyn’s camp is understood to be against the proposal.
Harriet Harman, the acting leader, said later that the process was still under review, though the ballot closes in less than three weeks. Citing the role of Labour’s procedure committee in deciding the eligibility of suspect voters, she said: “That is evidence of due diligence. It is not evidence of panic, or chaos, or out of control.”
The procedure committee will review the vetting process this week. Jon Ashworth, the Labour MP who sits on the committee, said it was working flat out to ensure the integrity of the process but suggested the new rules should be reviewed for the next ballot.
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Mr Corbyn told BBC Radio 5 Live that reports of party infiltrators were nonsense. He said that people who were unfairly rejected from the ballot needed to be looked at again.
The party made clear that it had taken legal advice from the deputy returning officer and independent legal adviser, John Sharpe, who reported that Labour’s processes were fair and compliant with the contest rules.
Mr Corbyn told Sky: “Running to the court is not really a great idea.”
Ms Kendall said: “Everyone must accept the result — I certainly will.”
Andy Burnham came under attack yesterday for sexism from Ms Cooper’s supporters after he suggested that Labour should have a female leader “in time, when the time is right”.
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• Women-only train carriages could be introduced at night to guard against sexual attacks, Jeremy Corbyn has suggested. “I would consult with women and open it up to hear their views on whether women-only carriages would be welcome,” he said.