A decision made Tuesday that Jeremy Corbyn will automatically be on the Labour leadership ballot “will break” the party, commentators have suggested.
Former MP Matthew Parris and Lord Michael Dobbs welcomed Labour’s National Executive Committee ruling, believing it will benefit the Conservative Party.
Corbyn had faced the difficult task of having to scrape together the nominations of 51 MPs and MEPs in order to fight off a challenge from Angela Eagle.
However, the NEC decided he could defend his position without being nominated.
Parris and Dobbs’ prediction was not greeted so gleefully by everyone with former Times executive editor, and Tory Lord, Daniel Finkelstein, calling it a “disaster for parliamentary democracy”.
And most commenters on social media agreed with him, saying “our system depends on having a functioning and credible opposition”.
Although not everyone saw Corbyn’s automatic inclusion on the ballot as a problem.