LEFT-WING members of Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) “walked out” of an online meeting today in protest at “factionalism” by the right in blocking a leading trade unionist’s election as chair.

A dozen members of the NEC wrote to Labour general secretary David Evans to say that the longstanding protocol of the vice-chair — currently the Fire Brigades Union’s Ian Murray — being elected as chairman had been torn up.

They said that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer had lobbied for veteran Derby South MP Dame Margaret Beckett, a foreign secretary under Tony Blair, to be elected under the “public reason” that she is the longest-serving member of the NEC.