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Islington councillor Claudia Webbe is hoping to be elected to Labour’s ruling body to stop leader Jeremy Corbyn being undermined at top-party level, she has told the Tribune.

Cllr Webbe, the Town Hall’s environment and transport chief and a vocal Corbyn ally, is standing to represent ordinary members on Labour’s powerful National Executive Committee (NEC), which oversees the overall direction of the party and the policy-making process. An unprecedented number of members are expected to take part in the ballot, which will close next Friday.

“We need be united at the top of the party,” Cllr Webbe said, explaining her decision to stand.

“We have to unite around our leader. There have been many reports from colleagues who tell me that in those [NEC] meetings Jeremy faces the same kind of disrespect as at the Parliamentary Labour Party meetings.

“There are people on that NEC who do not want to respect the fact that he’s the leader. But you can’t have the democratically elected leader being disrespected and undermined at the decision-making body.”

The Bunhill ward councillor is standing on the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance slate, made up of six pro-Corbyn candidates in an election which is seen as a battleground between those who support the Islington North MP’s leadership and those who do not.

She added: “The overall Corbyn project is to lead an anti-austerity agenda and that means listening to the voices of ordinary party members and enabling them to have a greater say in the running of the party.

“We need to set some rules about behaviour and we can’t have another leadership challenge. And we need to retell the story of Labour, of economic and social justice. The majority of society favours these things but that message is not being heard.”

The importance of Labour’s ruling body came into sharp focus earlier this month after members voted in a secret ballot that Mr Corbyn would automatically be included in the party's fresh leadership contest without having to seek nominations from MPs.