Labour leadership at war over claims of plot by the hard-Left

Accusations prompt day of furious exchanges between deputy leader and allies of Jeremy Corbyn

LABOUR descended into an open civil war last night amid accusations of a hard-Left “plot” to take over the party as the Conservatives extended their huge lead in the polls.

Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, yesterday warned that the future of the party is at risk after it emerged that Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters are plotting to take control of the party by joining forces with his union backers.

Jon Lansman, the leader of the Momentum campaign group which backs Mr Corbyn, was secretly recorded revealing that it plans to officially link with the Unite union.

The move would give Momentum, a grassroots movement that supports Mr Corbyn, access to huge funding and institutional support.

Mr Watson’s intervention prompted a furious response from John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, who accused him of “interfering” in the Unite leadership election in a bid to oust Len McCluskey, Mr Corbyn’s ally.

Mr Watson faced further “robust” criticism during a meeting of the shadow cabinet from several other close allies of the Labour leader.

Mr Corbyn last night hit back, accusing MPs of “navel-gazing”. In a video message released on social media he said: “Sometimes spirits in the Labour Party can run high. Today has been one of those days. That’s because we’re a passionate party.”

But one of his own MPs, Neil Coyle, suggested Mr Corbyn was attempting to divert attention from “uncomfortable” questions about the Copeland byelection, which saw Labour suffer a humiliating defeat.

Labour’s turmoil came as an ICM poll for The Guardian put the Tories on 45 per cent of the vote, up one point, while Labour has fallen further behind with the support of just 26 per cent of voters.

Despite the poll being carried out in the immediate aftermath of the Government’s U-turn on National Insurance payments, Mrs May and Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, were rated the best team to manage the economy. They were backed by 44 per cent, while Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell had the support of just 11 per cent.

After Mr Watson’s intervention, Mr McDonnell told the BBC: “This is not civil war... What he is trying to do is influence the election of the general secretary of Unite and he has dragged the Labour Party into this, completely unnecessarily.

“It’s all about Tom and the internal battle he is trying to wage within Unite. Dragging the party into this is disappointing.”

Mr Corbyn and Mr Watson issued a joint statement yesterday after a shadow cabinet “away day” in central London. They agreed to strengthen party unity and said “no one speaks for the leadership except the leadership themselves and their spokespeople”.

According to sources present at the away day, Mr Watson was criticised by his colleagues in the shadow cabinet for publicly hitting out at Mr Lansman.

In a recording obtained by The Observer, Mr Lansman tells a Momentum meeting: “Assuming that Len McCluskey wins the general secretaryship, which I think he will, Unite will affiliate to Momentum and will fully participate in Momentum, as will the CWU.”

He went on to tell activists it was “absolutely crucial” that they secured a change to the party’s rules to ensure that whenever Mr Corbyn stood down, they were able to get a candidate on to the ballot paper to succeed him.

Gail Cartmail, Unite’s acting general secretary, said: “There are no plans for Unite to affiliate to Momentum. Len McCluskey has never met Jon Lansman to discuss this or any other matter.”

‘He is trying to influence the election of the general secretary of Unite and has dragged the party into this’