Labour’s ruling body ‘misapplied’ rules to put Jeremy Corbyn on leadership ballot, High Court told

JEREMY Corbyn should be struck off the Labour leadership ballot and only allowed to run if he finds enough MP supporters, a judge has been told.

The hard left party boss should then be given 48 hours to find 51 backers in Parliament or be ejected from the job.

If his legal challenge fails then the leadership contest will continue as planned.

Ballot papers will start to be sent out on August 22 with the result announced at a special conference in Liverpool on September 24.

The ruling is expected to be delivered by the judge either today or tomorrow.

If the court bid fails then the leadership contest will continue as planned.

Mr McNicol announced a leadership election on July 11 after Wallasey MP Angela Eagle obtained the necessary number of nominations.

Ms Eagle withdrew from the race a week ago in order to back Owen Smith as a "unity candidate" to take on 67-year-old Mr Corbyn, who became leader in September last year.

Mr Smith, 46, who was elected to Parliament in 2010 as MP for Pontypridd and later promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, was one of a series of shadow cabinet members to resign over Mr Corbyn's leadership.

Last week, Master Victoria McCloud backed Mr Corbyn's bid to become a party in the action, saying that he personally faced "jeopardy" in the election and his interest in the litigation was significantly different to the general body of members represented by Mr McNicol.

She said that much turned on the outcome of the election as it would determine a crucial constitutional role in the UK.

Mr Corbyn’s senior aides will not be face formal sanctions for barging in to a senior Labour MP opponent’s office, it emerged yesterday.

Speaker John Bercow told former frontbencher Seema Malhotra that her unauthorised entry complaint does not amount to a breach of Commons rules.