The Purge: Election Year
I'm very concerned that some people seem to have been unfairly removed from the ability to vote in this electionhttps://t.co/S06ugwENc1
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 26, 2016
Are these signs that Corbyn isn’t confident of winning the leadership election?
Yesterday Jeremy Corbyn said he ‘fear[ed]some of his supporters may have been “unfairly” barred from voting in the party’s leadership election. He has handed a list of names to party officials, saying he wants a “fair and open” contest, with all those eligible to take part able to do so.’
On Thursday John McDonnell ‘accused Labour’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, of directing a “rigged purge” of party members, aimed at weeding out Corbyn voters.’
I am probably reading far too much into these comments but my initial reaction was Team Corbyn aren’t confident of winning, with the last public poll on this contest was over six weeks ago we haven’t got much to go on, but with the ballots having gone out this week, I wonder if this based on early returns.
Then again Labour’s NEC is apparently suspending members for posting their love of the Foo Fighters, suspending members for posting about their love of Justin Bieber or One Direction I could understand, so it might be a case of cock up rather than a conspiracy of a rigged purge.