JEREMY CORBYN will automatically be on the ballot paper in the event of a leadership challenge, the Labour leader’s spokesman said yesterday.

The senior Labour official said he believes the party’s rules state the leader would not need nominations from MPs to stand.

“Our view on that is the leader of the party is already on the ballot paper if there’s an election,” he told journalists in Parliament. It deals a blow to the rump of right-wing Labour MPs plotting a leadership challenge if Labour performs badly in May’s local elections.