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Labour Left-wingers are this week poised to mount a challenge to Sir Keir Starmer's authority by bidding to restore the party whip to Jeremy Corbyn.
They claim that banning the former leader from sitting as a Labour MP is 'unjustifiable' now that Tory defector Christian Wakeford – who reportedly once branded Labour 'a bunch of "c***s" – has been welcomed into the fold.
The move, set out in a motion tabled for the party's ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) this week, will be seen as a direct challenge to Sir Keir's ambition to draw a line under the Corbyn era.
Labour Left-wingers are this week poised to mount a challenge to Sir Keir Starmer's authority by bidding to restore the party whip to Jeremy Corbyn (pictured last week)
Only last week, Sir Keir hailed Mr Wakeford's defection by boasting it showed 'Labour has changed' and how it was now 'my Labour party'.
But the move sparked fury from Labour's Left that the former leader is still forced to sit as an independent MP more than a year after he was thrown out of the party following a bitter row over anti-semitism.
He will also not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in the next General Election.
But in a motion for Labour's NEC meeting this week, Fire Brigades Union president Ian Murray brands the ban a 'deeply divisive act by the leadership of the party' which was 'moving us further from the unity required' to take on the Tories.
He also claims maintaining the ban, imposed in October 2020, was
