Labour will try to block David Cameron’s former speechwriter from joining the party, after she said she wanted to help oust Jeremy Corbyn in the interests of “democracy”.
Clare Foges revealed today she has joined Labour to vote against Corbyn in the party’s next leadership election to restore a “fully functioning political system”.
But Labour quickly said she should not be allowed to join as she was a member of the Conservative Party.
Writing in The Times, Foges said while she would not be voting Labour at the next election she believed the lack of a “proper” opposition was bad for the country and “time may be running out”.
“I have secured my stake and my say. Being a Tory member I can’t join under my own name (and the Labour machine could spit me out after this column), but I have signed up a friend as my proxy,” she said.
“A sum of £4 a month seems small beer for the chance to help change the direction of a party that, though not my own, matters to the direction of the country.
Foges added: “Two years ago some Tories paid a £3 entry fee to join Labour and vote in Corbyn. It was part sabotage, part joke.
“The joke has gone on long enough. An opposition that is only good for satire is bad for Britain. Now is the time, as they say, for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party.”
A Labour Party spokesperson told The Huffington Post UK: “Abuse of the Labour Party’s membership system is against the Party’s rules and deeply anti-democratic.
“By joining the Labour Party our members agree to be bound by Labour’s rule book, they declare that they support our aims and values and they must be on the electoral register.
“Anybody who is found to be a member or supporter of another political party are no longer eligible for membership of the Labour Party.”
Len McCluskey, who is expected to be re-elected as Unite general secretary, said yesterday Corbyn has “15 months” to turn the polls around.
The union leader who is a staunch supporter of the Labour leader, told Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics: “The reality is that I’m hoping [Corbyn’s] given the opportunity to put the alternative that Labour are building to the British electorate and hopefully we’ll see, if he can break through, the opinion polls begin to change.”