Plot to oust Corbyn on day one

There have been reports of Labour’s opponents taking advantage of a £3 offer to become registered member allowing them an individual vote in the leadership election.

“It will mean rout, possibly annihilation”.

Writing for The Guardian, Mr Blair said: “The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched, over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below. It is a moment for a rugby tackle, if that were possible”.

Supporters of Mr Corbyn have the numbers to “mount a partial takeover” and do not think it matters if Labour wins an election, while “some actually disdain government”, Mr Blair said.

The Metro report that – unsurprisingly – Corbyn is an Arsenal supporter, and has often tweeted his support for Arsene Wenger when calls have been made for the Frenchman to resign.

Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw, a Labour minister under Tony Blair and a cabinet minister under Gordon Brown, said he knew the challenges in winning seats in areas that were not traditionally good for the party. “This would not be a level playing field for all the candidates”.

He will then hold regular votes on policy issues and organisational changes with a newly expanded left-wing membership, most of which he is likely to win, while arguing that MPs who oppose him are part of an out-of-touch Westminster bubble. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Kendall said: “This is the system we’ve got”.

But the party insisted action will continue to verify those signed up and remove people who are not entitled to a vote. Supporters were given an extra three hours to sign up and the deadline has now passed to be included.

As the party prepared to send ballot papers to the more than 600,000 who will have a vote in the contest, candidates continued to raise concerns about the fairness of the rules. They are also checking comments on social media of people registered to vote.

The GMB union said the total number of its members recorded with the Labour Party as affiliated supporters was 23,840.

Labour Party officials have brought the party’s four leadership campaign teams in for a meeting behind closed doors in an attempt to quell complaints that the voting process for the party’s leadership contest has undermined the competition’s credibility.

A branch of the Labour party in Leicester says it has seen surge in membership since the leadership contest began – with only a handful of people suspected of joining simply to sabotage the result.

One long term ally of Brown told the FT the former PM was considering whether to enter the debate.