Labour Party sees membership surge amid leadership race as MPs look to replace Jeremy Corbyn
The Labour Party has reportedly seen a membership surge amid its leadership race.
Constituency Labour parties (CLPs) have reported rises in local membership, according to BBC Two’s Newsnight.
It comes amid the Labour leadership race, which members will be able to vote in on February 21.
Emily Thornberry, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Lisa Nandy and Sir Keir Starmer are all hoping for the nomination.
The average membership increase was 20 per cent and in Hammersmith, 413 members have joined in a single month and in Bury North 202 more people have signed up, according to the BBC.
In other locations Hove, East Sussex, has 477 more, up 21 per cent, Richmond, south-west London, now has 350 new members, up 30 percent and Exeter has seen a 25 per cent increase with 300 additional members.
BBC Newsnight has been told that the CLP of Sir Starmer has risen by a third with 1,000 new members.
Candidates are required to have won the nomination of three Labour affiliates, including at least two unions, which amount to at least 5 percent of affiliate members.
The only other route on to the ballot is by receiving nominations from at least 5 percent of constituency Labour parties (CLPs).
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer and Wigan MP Lisa Nandy have already made it through the nomination process, and Ms Long-Bailey is widely expected to join them in the coming weeks.
Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry also hopes to be in the final stage of the contest.
Yesterday, Labour announced it had cancelled its leadership hustings in Leeds on Saturday after Sir Keir pulled out as his mother-in-law is critically ill in hospital.
He said on Thursday that he was suspending campaigning after his mother-in-law was involved in a serious accident.
General secretary Jennie Formby said that to ensure fairness to all the candidates, the party’s procedures committee had agreed Saturday’s hustings should not now go ahead.
The deputy leadership hustings will take place as planned.
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