Wounds reopen as rebels hit Starmer

LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer was humiliated yesterday as party divisions spilled out on his first day at the helm of the annual party conference.

- David Williamson

Sir Keir had hoped to change the one-member-one-vote system that had helped Jeremy Corbyn land the top job.

But his plans to replace it with a system that split the vote between trade unions and affiliated organisations, party members and MPs, were scrapped just as the conference in Brighton got underway.

It is Sir Keir’s first in-person conference as head of the party and leading Left-wingers did not hide their scorn.

Ex-leader Mr Corbyn told a Young Labour rally that “our party’s leadership seems to be turning its back on that hope for a more equal, democratic and sustainable future”.

The former shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, turned his guns on those at the top of the party when the National Executive Committee backed doubling the required threshold of support from MPs to stand in a leadership contest from 10 per cent to 20 per cent.