Labour to ban people who send 'abusive' messages from voting in party leadership election

A special email address has been set up to report abuse

Labour has attracted huge numbers of new members in recent months (Getty)

Labour has pledged to ban members and supporters who send abusive message on social media from voting in its leadership election.

The party has set up an email address, validation@labour.org.uk, which it says any abuse should be reported to directly.

General secretary Iain McNichol said in a statement on Monday that there was “simply too much” personal abuse taking place and that “it needs to stop”.

“I want to be clear, if you are a member and you engage in abusive behaviour towards other members it will be investigated and you could be suspended while that investigation is carried out,” he said.

“If you are a registered supporter or affiliated supporter and you engage in abusive behaviour you will not get a vote in this Leadership election. Details of any abusive behaviour can be reported by emailing validation@labour.org.uk.”

Mr McNichol repeatedly described the leadership election as “choosing our candidate for next Prime Minister” rather than choosing the party leader.

He acknowledged that both candidates for leader, Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith, had called for personal attacks to stop.

Factional warfare within Labour has boiled over in recent weeks, with supporters being rude to one another on Twitter.

A window was also smashed at Angela Eagle’s constituency office after she declared that she would run against Mr Corbyn. She later withdrew from the race.

Mr Corbyn has repeatedly called for calm from his supporters and others.

“As someone who has also received death threats this week and previously, I am calling on all Labour Party members and supporters to act with calm and treat each other with respect and dignity, even where there is disagreement,” he said earlier this month.

“I utterly condemn any violence or threats, which undermine the democracy within our party and have no place in our politics.”

Rival social media accounts have in recent weeks been cataloguing social media abuse against and by both parties.

Twitter page @LabourCoupAbuse catalogues threats and abuse by Labour moderates against Mr Corbyn’s supporters, while @GentlerPolitics highlights attacks by supporters of Mr Corbyn.