Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters have swept the board in elections to part of Labour’s ruling executive – in a sign that support for the embattled leader is solid among party members.
Six seats on the national executive are reserved for those directly elected in a postal ballot of the paid up membership. In 2015, the six places were taken up by a mix of Corbyn supporters and those critical of his leadership.
But in this year's ballot, announced today, the vice chair of the executive, Ellie Reeves, was knocked into seventh place behind five known Corbyn supporters. Ms Reeves is the sister of Rachel Reeves, who was a prominent member of Ed Miliband’s shadow cabinet but chose not to serve as a shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn.
Another casualty was Johanna Baxter, who complained about intimidation by Corbyn supporters after last month's executive meeting, which took a vote which could have had the effect of preventing Mr Corbyn from being on the ballot in a party leadership election had it gone through.
Mr Corbyn already had an majority on the executive, mainly because of the support he received from the representatives of trade unions who hold 12 of the 28 seats. Today’s result increases that majority, and is an indicator that Mr Corbyn is on course to defeat his challenger Owen Smith in September’s leadership election.,
The stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard, who was running independently for the executive, for the first time, came eighth.
A statement from Mr Corbyn’s leadership campaign said: “Our campaign would like to congratulate those new members to the Labour Party's NEC, and thank those former members who have served our party, and also thank those members who stood unsuccessfully.
"This result clearly shows that there is a desire for real and genuine change in our party under the continued leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, but we are not going to take anything for granted and we will be campaigning for every vote in the leadership contest."
