REBELLIOUS Labour MPs - some from the North-East - who want to oust Jeremy Corbyn have been compared to "scab" miners by a veteran left winger as a crunch meeting of the party's ruling committee got under way.

Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) is meeting in central London to rule on whether Mr Corbyn needs the nominations of 51 MPs and MEPs to stand in the party's leadership contest.

Dennis Skinner, who sits on the committee, compared the 172 Labour MPs who backed a no confidence motion in Mr Corbyn to the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM), who he said supported Margaret Thatcher during the miners' strike of the Eighties.

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Under pressure: Jeremy Corbyn

The MP's comments could indicate the potential tone of the NEC meeting, with members debating conflicting legal advice on whether Mr Corbyn should automatically get on the ballot paper as a sitting leader or whether he needs to secure the same number of nominations as his challenger Angela Eagle.

Given that only 40 MPs backed Mr Corbyn over the no confidence motion, he is unlikely to receive the support needed to stand in the race if the NEC rules that he must get the nominations.

Speaking to reporters outside Labour HQ ahead of the meeting, Mr Skinner said: "There are some people in the party, especially in the Parliamentary Labour Party, that are acting like the UDM - the ones that lined up with Thatcher against the NUM."

Asked if the rebellious MPs were "scabs", he replied: "That's a matter for you to interpret, you seem very plausible."

The so-called Beast of Bolsover said it was "cut and dry" that Mr Corbyn would be able to stand in the contest.

"Because of the legal advice we've obtained from several different sources, it's cut and dry and eventually we'll sort this matter out and Jeremy will remain," he said.

"I'm supporting Jeremy - according to the present rules he doesn't have to get any names whatsoever."

Mr Corbyn was mobbed by journalists as he entered the building for the meeting.

Senior Labour MP Keith Vaz, who also sits on the committee, said the leader was doing a "good job".

He said: "We have now got a new prime minister coming in tomorrow - I think that will concentrate everyone's minds.

"Jeremy Corbyn is the elected leader of the Labour Party.

"I saw him yesterday, he was doing a very good job yesterday."

Ahead of the crunch meeting, Mr Corbyn won messages of support from a string of trade unions, with the boss of Unite - the party's biggest financial backer - warning against a "sordid fix" to keep him off the ballot paper.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said it would be "alien to the concept of natural justice" if Mr Corbyn was blocked from defending his position, something which the union warned would "leave a stain on party unity that might prove permanent".

Mr Corbyn cancelled a planned speech at a Unite conference in Brighton to attend the NEC meeting.

The union issued a statement saying Mr Corbyn must be on the ballot paper "by right", and warning that anyone elected in a poll from which he was excluded would have "no credibility in either the party or the country".

Mick Whelan, general secretary of the Aslef train-drivers' union said: "Any gerrymandering, any attempt to keep Jeremy off the ballot, will mean the next leader will not have the democratic mandate he or she needs to win a general election. And it will further erode the trust people have in our politicians at Westminster."

And transport union TSSA reaffirmed its support for the veteran left-winger, saying: "Frankly, it would be nonsensical for an incumbent not to be allowed to defend their record against any challenger. It would be a sham. It would fly in the face of natural justice and the democratic traditions and the rules of our party."

The NEC has been presented with conflicting legal advice over Mr Corbyn's position, with Labour-commissioned analysis stating that he will need the nominations, but Unite-backed advice from Michael Mansfield QC concluding that he does not because he is a sitting leader.

Labour's rulebook states only that "potential challengers" for the leadership need the nominations of 20% of MPs and MEPs, something which opponents of Mr Corbyn say should apply to him as well as Ms Eagle and other possible contenders including former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith.

Lord Collins, Labour's general secretary when the rule was introduced, said it applied to all candidates including an incumbent leader.

"There is no fix here," he told BBC Radio 4's The World At One. "We don't have an election with an incumbent versus a candidate. Once an election is called you have candidates and all of those candidates must meet the same test of eligibility. That is the principle that is enshrined across the Labour movement."

But Mr Corbyn's supporters argue that, as incumbent leader, he should not be classed as a "challenger", and the party looks likely to end up in court if his name is not on the ballot paper.

Lawyers acting for Jim Kennedy, a trade union member of the committee, have written to party general secretary Iain McNicol warning they will take "injunctive action" unless Mr Corbyn is automatically included.

A Labour source confirmed that the NEC had agreed to hold the vote on the nomination requirement in secret.

A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said reports that he had refused to leave the meeting when asked were "a total fabrication" and that he left straight away.

NEC members are now taking a short break before beginning "intense discussions" on whether Mr Corbyn needs the nominations to get on the ballot paper.

Voting will begin after those discussions with the result not expected until 6pm at the earliest but "likely to be much later", the spokesman said.

Bob Marshall-Andrews, a barrister, insisted the leadership contest rules were "completely ambiguous" but said he had always taken the view that it was down to challengers only to come up with nominations.

The former Labour MP predicted the party would split by the end of the year and called for the creation of a new centre left group.

"I think, whichever way it goes, there is a near inevitability that the Labour Party will split, perhaps not immediately, but certainly within the year," he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.

"If it's a divided left then we will never gain power again, particularly in view of Scotland. We need a unified coalition of the centre left and, outside the Westminster bubble, there's an enormous appetite for that, for a new party, common ground, not a bad name when you come to think of it, between the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party, the Lib Dems, the Greens, coming together to discuss and address the problems of the 21st century."