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ATTEMPTS to undermine Jeremy Corbyn by forcibly packing his shadow cabinet with his opponents would amount to a “coup,” Labour democracy campaigners said yesterday.
The revelation that MPs are still planning to remove the leader’s power to appoint shadow ministers in spite of party rules came as a prominent organiser on Labour’s right wing compared Mr Corbyn’s rise to the spread of Isis in Iraq.
Members of the shadow cabinet have been appointed by the leader since 2011, when Ed Miliband ended the long-standing practice of elections among MPs.
But if Mr Corbyn is victorious when the result of the leadership election on Saturday, a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) will hear calls for elections to be reinstated.
Troublemakers face a major stumbling block as the appointments system is now enshrined in the party rulebook — meaning it could not be scrapped without a vote at Labour Party conference.
And even if the change was endorsed by Labour’s national executive, Mr Corbyn is likely to have already appointed a shadow cabinet by the time conference begins on September 27.
A spokesman for the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) poured cold water yesterday on weekend newspaper reports that party officials have told MPs the rules could be ignored.
“It’s clearly in the party rules that this is the leader’s power,” he said.
“The PLP could probably take a decision to stage shadow cabinet elections, but I would call that a coup.”
Appearing on television yesterday, acting Labour leader Harriet Harman dryly warned that the party should rally behind the new leader.
“Whoever is elected as leader on Saturday will be validly elected under [the party’s] rules,” she said.
But Luke Akehurst, former secretary of right-wing group Labour First, inflamed the contest in comments quoted by a Sunday newspaper.
“The analogy an MP gave me was that these people are moving through the party like Isis in their jeeps in Iraq,” he said.
Left Futures writer Keith Wright said the former Labour NEC member “may regret his poor choice of comparison if he seeks election or selection in the Labour Party in the future.”
