Now Momentum has installed its candidates in key marginals
THE hard-Left group Momentum has joined forces with unions to install 19 of their supporters as Labour candidates for the next General Election.
In a plot to replace moderates with radicals loyal to Jeremy Corbyn in Labour’s top target parliamentary seats, hardline Left-wingers represent more than half the 36 candidates chosen so far.
They have pinpointed Tory-held constituencies with the smallest majorities that they believe are most winnable.
Unite, the country’s biggest union, has provided training to help favoured candidates win the hotly contested selections and has offered financing for campaigns.
Political organisers employed by the union, led by Len McCluskey, have been deployed to assist the would-be MPs and it has drafted in call centre staff to rally support for them.
Long-standing Labour members have told how Momentum supporters have flooded local party meetings to vote for fervent Corbyn supporters after being mobilised online.
Candidates who have been picked to stand include a vicar nicknamed the ‘Red Rev’ who appeared alongside George Galloway at a mosque in east London and accused the Government of stigmatising young Muslims.
Others include a human rights barrister who provided legal advice to Mr Corbyn, a former rail union organiser and a local council leader who signed a pledge of loyalty to the Labour leader.
Momentum founder Jon Lansman has expressed his delight as candidates backed by his group, which grew out of Mr Corbyn’s 2015 leadership campaign, have been victorious.
Labour has begun picking parliamentary candidates for the next General Election in its top target seats, with plans to have held selections in the 75 most marginal constituencies by April.
An analysis by the Daily Mail has found that 19 of the 36 candidates chosen so far have close links to Momentum or the unions.
In the Cities of London and Westminster constituency, Momentum activist and parish priest Steven Saxby won the selection after receiving support from his union, Unite, and the endorsemobilise ment of shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who described him as a ‘good socialist comrade’.
Opponents reported that a professional campaigning firm was employed to telephone local members to canvass support on behalf of Mr Saxby.
In Camborne and Redruth – Labour’s top target in the South West – the successful candidate, Momentum-backed former bus driver Paul Farmer, thanked Unite for helping him win the selection.
In Northampton South, the moderate candidate Kevin McKeever was not re- selected, despite cutting the Conservatives’ majority in the seat from 6,004 to 3,793 at the 2015 election, and then to 1,159 last year.
Gareth Eales was picked to stand in the seat instead after he received the endorsement of ten unions, including the Communication Workers Union, in which he has been an official for the past 18 years.
Human rights barrister Mark McDonald, who received the backing of Momentum, was selected in Stoke-on-Trent South despite having an apparent lack of local connections.
He has provided legal advice to Mr Corbyn and controversial hardLeft activist Tony Greenstein, who was suspended from the party.
However, Momentum and the trade unions have not succeeded in getting all their candidates selected as they have struggled to enough supporters in some seats.
A party source said: ‘ In some places they just haven’t managed to get enough of Jeremy’s army to actually turn up to the selection meetings.’ Another source added: ‘They are pouring resources in but with limited success.
‘They are trying to take over but so far they have not succeeded.’ In Watford, for example, Unite fsailed to get its choice – taxi driver Mike Hedges – picked as the candidate after complaints from local members that the selection was being ‘rigged’. Mr Hedges was beaten in a vote of local members by Chris Ostrowski, who stood in the seat last year.
‘They are pouring resources in’