Owen Smith overwhelmingly backed by Jewish Labour Movement

Labour leadership contender Owen Smith has overwhelmingly won the backing of the Jewish Labour Movement.

92 percent of JLM members that cast their vote in a ballot backed the Welsh MP who is seeking to replace Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the opposition.

In the vote, only four percent selected the incumbent leader as their preferred candidate. Another four percent chose no nomination.

Nearly 60 percent of eligible members of the JLM voted in the ballot.

More than 130,000 new members have joined the party in the last six months, many of whom are believed to support the incumbent leader.

Last week however, the Court of Appeal overturned a previous judgment which reinstated the decision of Labour’s ruling body, to exclude those who had not joined the party by January 12 and held membership continuously until July 12 – the “freeze date”.

Labour’s leadership election will therefore go ahead with the exclusion of new members.

It comes after deputy Labour leader Tom Watson claimed that “Trotsky entryists” were infiltrating the party to boost Mr Corbyn’s support.

Veteran Labour politician and former acting leader Margaret Beckett also criticised Corbyn supporters today, claiming on BBC Radio 4 : “We have had examples of people saying ‘I want to join the Labour Party because of Jeremy but of course if he ceases to be the leader I shall leave’. Those are not members of the Labour Party, those are members of a fan club.”