Labour leadership race: Andy Burnham raises concerns of “several thousand” Conservative infiltrators in vote
Thousands of Conservatives could be intending to vote in the Labour leadership election, according to Andy Burnham’s campaign.
An “urgent meeting” of candidates' teams is necessary, the BBC reports Michael Dugher, who is leading Burnham’s campaign, to have said.
Read more: Now Labour is blocking genuine party members from leadership vote
"This suggests the 121,000 registered supporters could include several thousand Tory infiltrators, as well as supporters of other parties seeking to have a vote in the election," the letter added.
Dugher, Sky reports, said the party was "allowing the issue to drift, and potentially leaving insufficient time for the party to act".
We are therefore writing to ask you to call an urgent meeting of candidate teams early next week to discuss this matter further, to brief us on progress being made, and to consider recommendations from the campaign teams.
New party regulations allowed the public to sign up as a "registered supporter” rather than a fully-fledged member of the Labour party in order to vote in the leadership contest for just £3.
There has been speculation over the last few weeks that those who do not share Labour’s “values” and “aims” are trying to infiltrate the party to help elect Corbyn, who they deem unelectable at a General Election.
This comes the day after it emerged Labour appeared to have blocked genuine members and supporters of the Labour party from taking part in the vote. This was labelled #LabourPurge on Twitter.
Read more: Over 600,000 apply to vote in last-minute surge expected to benefit Jeremy Corbyn
A Labour Party spokesperson said “the Labour Party has a robust system to prevent fraudulent or malicious applications”.
Earlier this month 1,200 people were banned from taking part because they support rival parties, including journalist Toby Young and Conservative MP Tim Loughton.