Sunday 14 August 2016 4:10 pm

No Labour leadership vote for new members after legal challenge dropped

The Labour Party has ultimately triumphed in its bid to ban thousands of new members from voting in the leadership election after a legal case was dropped

The court of appeal on Friday overturned a previous decision giving the go-ahead to 130,000 new members to vote in the upcoming election which will pit leader Jeremy Corbyn against newcomer Owen Smith.

Now, the five Labour members who originally brought the case have said they won't challenge the decision at the Supreme Court because they cannot afford to take the case any further.

"Unfortunately, given the costs involved in pursuing the case further (the fee for getting the case even heard at the Supreme Court is around £8,000), we have taken the decision that this is where this particular legal case has to stop," Hannah Fordham, one of the five said.

Labour's National Executive Committee had ruled that members needed to have up to six months continuous membership of the party up to a "freeze date" of 12 July to vote in the leadership contest. The group had argued this was undemocratic.

The new members who will not be able to vote are widely thought to be supporters of Corbyn, who on Friday called the decision wrong, handing Smith

The case has highlighted the split in the party after attempts to oust Corbyn as leader.