The Labour donor Michael Foster has lost his High Court case attempt to force Jeremy Corbyn to get 51 nominations from MPs and MEPs to be a candidate in the Labour leadership race. The Judge upheld the Labour National Executive Committee’s decision that Corbyn, as the incumbent, should automatically appear on the ballot.
Today is a significant victory for Corbyn. If he had to get parliamentary nominations to appear on the ballot paper, he would have struggled badly to do so. Indeed, he might well have lost by default. But now, Corbyn can get on with his leadership campaign.
Corbyn goes into this campaign as the firm favourite to win. Owen Smith is clearly trying to tack left in an attempt to eat away at Corbyn’s left-wing support. But the sense among Labour MPs is that Corbyn’s edge among the newly signed up registered supporters is big enough to take him to victory.
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