IN the wake of a damaging defeat in the polls most political parties are desperate to attract new members.

Labour, however, has chucked out more than 3,000 recent recruits during a purge of suspected infiltrators who have joined to take part in the impending leadership vote.

Ed Miliband's reign was plagued by the fact that his election as Labour leader was based on union support because of the party's rules, which gave a third of the vote to the unions.

His brother, David, had won greater backing from members and MPs but did not have enough support from the unions to secure the top job.

Under new party rules introduced last year, members of the public could sign up to vote in the Labour leadership contest for £3. More than 160,000 people signed up to vote in the final days before the registration deadline.

With hindsight a smarter idea would have been to freeze membership in the wake of Ed's resignation, ensuring that the new leader was elected by existing members rather than interlopers hell bent on mischief.

Acting leader Harriet Harman has rejected suggestions the party is attempting to weed out far-left supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, thousands of whom are thought to have signed up to vote for him.

Mr Corbyn rejected as nonsense claims of widespread Conservative infiltration, amid reports Tory activists had signed up to vote for him because they believe the left-winger would be a disaster for Labour.

A valiant attempt to inject a greater sense of democracy into its electoral system has turned into an embarrassing distraction for the party as it recovers from May’s mauling.

“Democracy is the road to socialism,” said Karl Marx. Those words will take on added meaning if Mr Corbyn secures victory on September 12.