<p><br /> Nearly 10 per cent of votes cast in the Labour leadership election did not count. More than 36,500 of the 375,000 ballots were declared spoiled by officials.<br /> </p><p><br /> The overwhelming majority of those came in the trade unions affiliates section which was crucial in allowing Ed Miliband to defeat elder brother David by a margin of just 1.3 per cent.<br /> </p><p><br /> Some 36,105 of the 247,339 cast in that section did not count.<br /> </p><p><br /> Many of the votes are believed to have been ruled out because trade union members omitted to tick a box confirming they were Labour supporters.<br /> </p><p><br /> A Labour Party spokesman said: "These ballots were not counted because the affiliate members who returned them did not tick a box to confirm that they support the Labour Party and not another political party.<br /> </p><p><br /> "The ballot papers carried clear and prominent instructions that people's votes would not be counted if they did not do this."<br /> </p>
