Concerns over Labour’s vetting process for voting in its leadership election are likely to take another hike after the party reportedly approved the application of a mysterious 115-year-old called “Mr Bum Fluff”.
The decision to grant the centenarian a ballot came even as the party rejected the musician Brian Eno, Kensington and Chelsea News reported, several weeks after he came out in favour of hard leftist Jeremy Corbyn.
Given the oldest Briton is thought to be a Gladys Hooper, a mere 112, it seems fair to guess a mistake has been made.
Other joke candidates thought to have attempted to make it through the vetting process include Lyndon Johnson, the president of America from 1963 to ’69, and tennis player Serena Williams, according to Labour MP Stephen Pound.
Claims of shenanigans in the election follow a surge of registered support for Labour, which is expecting some 550,000 people to have a vote in its election.
As thousands signed up to vote concerns were raised, particularly by Blairites, that the election was being hijacked by hard left voters looking to vote for Corbyn, as well as mischievous Tories who wished to vote for him in a bid to damage the party’s electoral prospects.
Eno joins a number of prominent figures in being rejected for the vote, including comedian Mark Steel, science writer Marcus Chown and the trade unionist Mark Serwotka.
Image Credit – Lyndon Johnson in March 1964, by Arnold Newman, White House Press Office
