LABOUR: BRING ON COALITION CHAOS

Party insiders admit they can’t win the election – and WILL stitch up deal with Sturgeon and the LibDems

LABOUR’S election goal is to deny Theresa May a majority and enter into an alliance with the Scottish nationalists, an insider has revealed.

Given its dire poll ratings, Jeremy Corbyn’s party is confining itself to fighting for a hung parliament rather than an outright victory, a campaign source said.

It is hoped that the Labour leader could then enter Downing Street propped up by a ‘progressive alliance’ of the SNP, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens.

The revelation comes as concern mounts that the hard-left Momentum pressure group has completely taken over Labour’s high command. Mr Corbyn is being advised day-to-day by James Schneider, the former national organiser of Momentum who is now Labour’s director of strategic communications. Mrs May yesterday repeated her claim that the election was a ‘ very clear choice between strong and stable leadership under the Conservatives or a coalition of chaos led by Jeremy Corbyn’.

Earlier this week Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, threatened to help Mr Corbyn into Number 10 by building a ‘progressive alliance’ between left-of-centre parties. The Labour leader was forced to say there would be no coalition between his party and the SNP, saying he would not join a party which wanted to break up the United Kingdom.

But yesterday one of his campaign team said the party’s number one priority is to deny Mrs May an overall majority on June 8. The source suggested Labour would then be well-placed to cut a deal with the SNP, Lib Dems and Greens that could see Mr Corbyn installed as Prime Minister.

Although it would not be a full coalition, they envisage a minority Labour government supported by the other opposition parties in crucial votes, such as on the Budget or a vote of confidence.

‘Our number one goal is to deny the Tories a majority,’ a Labour campaign source told the Daily Mirror. ‘And that is not beyond the realms of imagination. If we can take say 40 seats off them – and we’re only talking overturning small majorities – then we can be somewhere near parity.

‘And if the Lib Dems do well too, the Tories will be out of government. Who is going to be able to cut a deal [with the other parties] over Brexit, us or them?’

The idea of a pact – first put forward by the Greens – was backed by Lord Ashdown, the former LibDem leader. He tweeted: ‘Well done the Greens for reaching out for sensible seat arrangements, where these can be done. Labour and Lib Dems should respond positively.’

But another former LibDem leader Nick Clegg tweeted that it was not on the cards because Labour was nowhere close to denying Mrs May a majority.

‘Ludicrous Tory attempt to claim election’s close. No one believes “coalition of chaos” – Corbyn won’t be PM. Don’t Cons know its 2017 not 2015,’ he said.

Former Labour leader Tony Blair said he did not believe Mr Corbyn had a chance of winning the election and urged voters to back candidates opposed to a hard Brexit.

‘There are many great Labour candidates and MPs and I will be fully supportive of them,’ he said. ‘But the fact is that if the polls are right, Theresa May will be PM on June 9 with a large majority.’

Labour moderates are increasingly concerned about the influence Mr Schneider now has on Mr Corbyn’s office.

Momentum’s influence has increased since Mr Corbyn was reelected as Labour leader last year. Its founder Jon Lansman, who ran Tony Benn’s deputy leadership campaign in 1981, has met Mr Corbyn frequently and as recently as last month. There are even rumours Mr Corbyn wants to nominate Mr Lansman for a peerage.

Momentum was set up in October 2015, four weeks after Mr Corbyn became Labour leader. The grassroots movement was designed as a counterbalance to the moderate wing of the party which dominated the MPs and party machine. There are now more than 150 local Momentum groups, and its membership stands at more than 20,000.

It says it wants to ‘increase participatory democracy, solidarity, and grassroots power and help Labour become the transformative governing party of the 21st century’. But many in the party worry that Momentum could be used by Trotskyites to find their way back into the Labour party.

They fear it could undermine all the work Neil Kinnock did in the 1980s to expel the Militant group.

There are also concerns that Momentum will mobilise to encourage the deselection of moderate MPs opposed to the direction of Mr Corbyn’s leadership.

‘The Tories will be out of government’