Momentum are the worst threat since Militant, says Hattersley

JEREMY Corbyn’s hardLeft Momentum group is a bigger threat to the Labour party than the 1980s Militant wing, Roy Hattersley has warned.

The former deputy leader of the party said the invasion by ‘politically disreputable opportunists’ and ‘extremists’ means Labour could face ‘extinction’.

He warned that Momentum, which grew out of Mr Corbyn’s 2015 Labour leadership bid, is plotting a ‘bloodbath’ of moderate MPs and councillors.

Lord Hattersley’s intervention comes as the hard-Left seeks to deselect councillors ahead of next year’s local elections and as the party begins picking parliamentary candidates in the most marginal constituencies.

In the London Borough of Haringey, around a dozen councillors have been ousted or have decided not to stand following pressure from Momentum.

Three Labour councillors in the borough yesterday claimed Momentum had been working with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) to intimidate sitting councillors as they became the latest to withdraw from the selection process.

Jason Arthur, Natan Doron and Sarah Elliott, who represent the Crouch End ward, wrote in a blog post: ‘It is right that sitting councillors should have to win the support of local Labour Party members and we aren’t against having to explain our views at a hustings to gain their support.

‘Sadly, we do not believe that our views will be heard with an open mind, nor our track-record assessed in a fair manner. The current climate of Haringey Labour politics feels factional and poisonous – anger, cynicism and distrust now shape too many debates within the local party.’ A row has also erupted in Watford after Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) over-ruled the local party’s decision not to put a union official on its shortlist.

The selection committee in the seat, which the Tories won by just 2,092 votes in June, removed Unite organiser Mike Hedges from the list of potential candidates that members will vote on when they whittled them down from eight to four.

But after he was put back on the list, the local selection committee has written to the NEC, saying they are ‘deeply worried the democratic processes of our party are being undermined’. A party spokesman said: ‘ The shortlist was decided in line with Labour’s procedures.’

In an article for the Observer, Lord Hattersley wrote: ‘ The Labour party faces the greatest crisis in its history. Momentum – a party within the party which is dedicated to moving Labour to the far left of the political spectrum – is on the point of winning control of Labour’s policy, programme and constitution... In fact, the Labour party is in far more danger than it was in the 1970s. Militant was better organised than Momentum but commanded less support and was active in fewer constituencies.’