March of the hard-Left – even if Tories win

BRITAIN faces the most Left-wing Commons in decades even if Jeremy Corbyn loses the General Election.

Eighty candidates supported by hard-Left pressure group Momentum are standing for Labour, in many places replacing moderates who have stood down or quit the party.

Many have won bitter internal battles to be selected for safe seats and will almost certainly become MPs later this month.

Some have already been embroiled in controversy over alleged anti-Semitism, while others have joined Labour from more extreme socialist parties.

And there are suspicions the party is trying harder to get the new Corbynite candidates elected than defending seats held by moderates.

Among the new Momentum-backed intake inheriting large majorities are Zarah Sultana, who is standing in Coventry South. She said she would celebrate the deaths of Tony Blair and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Elsewhere Kate Osborne, who is seeking election in Jarrow, once posted a photo of Theresa May with a gun to her head.

Meanwhile, Sam Tarry, running in Ilford South, this week claimed some people in Labour were ‘exploiting’ anti-Semitism because they disagree with Mr Corbyn.

Last night David Morris, who has been Conservative MP for Morecambe since 2010, said: ‘Corbyn’s hard-Left candidates in Parliament would mean ruinous policies that would wreck our economy and cost people their livelihoods.’

Momentum was set up as a grassroots movement to support Mr Corbyn and prepare the ground for a socialist government immediately after his Labour leadership win in 2015. It soon had more than 30,000 members – mainly young and based in cities. At the 2017 election, Momentum was credited with shock defeats for the Tories in seats such as Kensington and Canterbury.

Analysis has found as many as 80 Labour candidates standing at next month’s election were either backed by Momentum branches in selection fights, are activists themselves of the group or have got Momentum teams out campaigning for them to unseat top Tories.

Alan Olive, a former regional director for Labour in London, said: ‘We have a Labour campaign strategy where the objective is more about securing a pro-Corbyn parliamentary Labour Party post election, rather than securing as many seats as possible.’