Labour Left tightens grip on party executive
Mandatory reselection of MPS a step closer as three Left-wing faithfuls win places on powerful NEC
JEREMY CORBYN last night tightened his grip on the Labour Party after three Left-wingers joined the party’s ruling National Executive Committee.
The election of Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum, Yasmine Dar and Rachel Garnham will allow the Labour leader to make major changes to the party’s constitution and cement the takeover of the party by the Left.
The trio collected nearly 200,000 of the 315,000 votes cast after appealing to grassroots members who had signed up to the party because of Mr Corbyn. Eddie Izzard, the actor and stand-up comedian, came fourth in the election.
The Labour leader sent his congratulations on Twitter, saying he looked forward to working with them.
Mr Lansman founded and chairs the activist group that secured Mr Cor- byn’s 2016 re-election as leader and drove Labour’s advances at the 2017 general election. Ms Dar, a party member since 2012, is a Manchester councillor who once spoke at an event to mark the Iranian revolution. Rachel Garnham has been a Labour activist in Bedfordshire for 20 years.
Mr Lansman, now one of the most influential figures in the Labour movement, said on Twitter that he was honoured to be joining a Labour party that was now a “21st century version of the socialist party I joined 44 years ago”. The elections are likely to give Mr Corbyn a decisive grip on the party machine and allow the Left to bring in new rules on the reselection of Labour MPS. Mr Lansman said he wanted Labour to be “members-led”, diluting the power of its MPS, many of whom remain sceptical about Mr Corbyn’s leadership.
The new-look NEC meets for the first time today at Labour HQ.
Mr Lansman, 60, was campaign coordinator for Tony Benn when he was elected deputy leader in 1981 and was at the Parliamentary Labour Party office in 2015 to see in Mr Corbyn as leader.
Stephanie Lloyd, of the centre-llft campaign group Progress, said: “I hope Jon Lansman will not try to run the Labour Party like he runs Momentum. We need our focus to be on stopping a Tory hard Brexit, not stopping Labour conference discussing Brexit; we need to replace Tory MPS, not deselect hardworking Labour MPS.”
James Cleverly MP, the Conservative Party deputy chairman, said: “The election of Jon Lansman and his comrades confirms that the hard Left has well and truly consolidated its grip over the Labour Party. With a former adviser to John Mcdonnell now demanding mandatory reselections of all Labour candidates, it is more important than ever that Jeremy Corbyn condemns abuse and intimidation in his party.”