Labour Leadership Race 'Should Be Halted'

The Labour leadership race should be put on hold so steps can be taken to stop people joining the party simply to back the hard-left, according to an MP.

Backbencher John Mann says the contest is "totally out of control" and at risk of being distorted by "infiltrators".

Mr Mann told The Sunday Times that acting party leader Harriet Harman should step in, as speculation grows that 140,000 people may have joined the party since the General Election - just so they can vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

The Communist Party of Great Britain is reported to have urged supporters to join the party and endorse Mr Corbyn.

Under new rules, they only have to pay £3 to have their say in the vote.

He said: "It is becoming a farce with long-standing members ... in danger of getting trumped by people who have opposed the Labour party and want to break it up - expressly want to break it up.

"Some of it is the militant tendency types coming back in."

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Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham echoed these concerns, claiming the party is not only at risk of being broken up - but also of becoming irrelevant.

In the Sunday Mirror, he wrote that Labour is "at a fork in the road".

He added: "I am now worried that, if we take the wrong turn, there's a real risk that the party could split.

"People who are being hit hard by this Tory government urgently need Labour to come together and get its act together."

David Blunkett wrote in the same newspaper that Mr Corbyn, known for campaigning against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, was a representative of the "Old Left", leaving him lacking in answers to the problems faced by the party today.

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Mr Blunkett, a former home secretary, said: "These spasms of self-indulgence are not new...but now is the time for them to stop."

He added that he is backing Mr Burnham in the leadership race.

Yesterday, Mr Burnham hit back at accusations of sexism levelled at his campaign, describing them as "nonsense" .

He was speaking after leadership rival Yvette Cooper said his supporters appeared to calling for herself and fellow female candidate Liz Kendall to drop out and "leave it to the boys".