Left-wing MP Jeremy Corbyn yesterday hit out at proposals to change the way Labour's parliamentary candidates are selected, warning that they would stop ''radical voices'' emerging in future.
The Islington North MP is described in Tribune magazine - the voice of the left - as a prime target for deselection if the leadership goes ahead with the proposals.
Labour's ruling National Executive Committee is to discuss the proposals today, amid fears expressed by some MPs that it is designed to silence the left.
They are worried about the proposed central approved list of new candidates which they believe will hand more power to party leaders to back Blairite loyalists.
They are also concerned at plans to send MPs' voting records at Westminster to their constit-
uency parties, which some believe could be used to target left-wing rebels who do not always follow the party line.
A senior party spokesman has insisted that there would be ''no big purge'' of left-wingers under the proposals, and the only sitting MPs likely to be affected by the changes would be those undergoing disciplinary action.
Yesterday Mr Corbyn said the proposals were aimed less at sitting MPs and more at preventing up and coming politicians from the left becoming MPs in the first place.
A senior Labour party spokesman defended the proposal to send MPs' voting records to their local parties, saying this information was already publicly available.
''There is nothing secret or untoward about this,'' the spokesman said.
He also firmly denied that the move was aimed at unseating left-wing Government critics such as Mr Corbyn or Alan Simpson, MP for Nottingham South, as has been claimed.
''There are Labour MPs who feel this is some mechanism designed to de-select them. That is not the case. It's very much designed to ensure that the vast majority of Labour MPs are re-selected without having to do as much work as in the last Parliament.'' He emphasised: ''We are not looking at a big purge of Labour MPs. Quite the opposite.''
He said that the only people likely to lose their seats under the system would be those MPs undergoing disciplinary procedures. This might include Mohammed Sarwar, MP for Glasgow Govan, and Tommy Graham, MP for Renfrewshire West, both suspended from the party.
Under the proposed changes, sitting MPs would go through what the leadership describes as a simpler re-selection process. ''It's about speeding up the re-selection of sitting Labour MPs and is designed to make it easier for sitting MPs to get re-selected next time round,'' the spokesman said.
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