It appears that the party has taken a page out of Jeb Bush’s vote suppression playbook in 2000:
Harriet Harman, the interim Labour leader, has defended the integrity of her party’s leadership election system amid claims it has been infiltrated by hard left extremists as well as Conservatives out to discredit the process.
She said “rigorous due diligence” was being undertaken by Labour staff, and the new electoral system introduced in 2014 was less open to manipulation than its predecessor, which freely allowed opponents of Labour to vote without any checks.
She also disclosed a new email was being sent to local branches setting out how they could check whether bogus applicants were trying to join the party as registered supporters.
Labour has been hit by allegations that the party, by offering a vote to anyone paying a £3 fee, has left itself vulnerable to mass infiltration, mainly by hard leftwingers but also by Tories.
When signing up as a registered supporter – rather than joining as a party member – people must agree to the declaration: “I support the aims and values of the Labour Party, and I am not a supporter of any organisation opposed to it.” More than 20,000 new full members have joined the party since the leadership nominations closed. It is a good chance that most are genuinely enthused, and many are likely to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.
Let me get this straight: People are willing to pay money to associate themselves with the Labour Party, and you are trying to suppress their votes?
What is the next dumbass policy you are going to try? Maybe going out of your way to piss off people in the Labour strongholds in Scotland?
Oh ……… wait ……… They already did that, probably losing everything north of Hadrian’s wall for a generation.
This is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.