Andrew Gilligan:
KEY organisers in Momentum, the new Jeremy Corbyn supporters’ group inside the Labour Party, are plotting “civil war” to get rid of moderate Labour MPs, despite repeated denials, a Sunday Telegraph investigation has found.
Leaders of Momentum include a senior member of a group involved in violent anti-gentrification protests, revolutionary Marxists, and paid staff of parties which oppose Labour.
The south London borough of Lewisham can be revealed as a key target for Momentum, with the group likely to challenge at least two of the area’s moderate Labour MPs.
Momentum has harvested thousands of confidential personal records of Labour members, including their email addresses and telephone numbers, and is using them to operate phonebanks, it can be disclosed.
The tactic has caused a major row, with Momentum’s opponents claiming it is illegal under data protection laws.
Momentum, launched last month to “continue the energy and enthusiasm of Jeremy’s campaign”, insists it is a “social movement” that is “not campaigning at all on any deselections” of MPs.
Speaking to the BBC, the group’s spokesman, James Schneider, said: “The purpose of Momentum is not to have internal factional battles, it’s to look outside.”
However, bulletins and documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph – some confidential, others openly published online – make clear that Momentum leaders and activists have different ideas.
Writing on the website of Labour Party Marxists, of which he is secretary, Stan Keable, Momentum’s organiser in Hammersmith and Fulham, stated: “As the hard Right begins its civil war, the Left must respond with a combination of disciplinary threats, constitutional changes and reselection measures.
“Those [MPs] sabotaging Labour election campaigns, those who vote with the Tories on austerity, war or migration, must be hauled up before the NEC [National Executive Committee].
“If MPs refuse to abide by party discipline … we should democratically select and promote trustworthy replacement candidates.”
Mr Keable is named as the “organiser contact” for Hammersmith and Fulham on Democracy SOS, Momentum’s campaign to register new voters.
He is one of many revolutionaries to be welcomed into the new group, even though Labour explicitly bars anyone who opposes parliamentary democracy.
Momentum’s organiser in Lambeth and Southwark, Lewis Bassett, is a leader of Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth, a militant group linked to the Occupy movement which organises “resistance” against evictions and the local Labour councils.
In April, the group destroyed fencing around a redevelopment site, causing thousands of pounds’ damage.
The group was also present the same month at the “reclaim Brixton” antigentrification protests when a branch of Foxtons estate agent’s was smashed up and looted. It condoned the violence, although there is no suggestion Mr Bassett carried it out.
In February, it occupied Lambeth Town Hall to protest against the Labour council.
Laura Murray, Momentum’s organiser in Camden, is the daughter of Andrew Murray, chief of staff of the Unite union and a member of the Communist Party of Britain, which defends Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Liam McNulty, Momentum’s organiser in Haringey, is an activist in the Trotskyite Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. At least three other Trotskyite groups, including the Socialist Workers’ Party, have urged their members to join Momentum.
Jon Lansman, Momentum’s director, a veteran of 1980s hard-Left factionfighting, was due to share a platform today with key Trotskyite Militant Tendency leaders expelled from Labour in the 1980s, including Tony Mulhearn, a member of the Militant-dominated Liverpool council in the Eighties and Peter Taaffe, another key figure in Militant, now known as the Socialist Party.
Mr Lansman said he had cancelled his appearance. Other Momentum organisers are or were paid staff of demo- cratic parties which campaign against Labour.
The group’s organiser in Hackney, Joe Ryle, was until at least the end of September press spokesman for Keith Taylor, the Green MEP for South East England.
Momentum has not publicly named its national leaders, and has refused to answer on social media when asked by supporters.
However, The Sunday Telegraph has established that Simon Fletcher, Mr Corbyn’s chief of staff, has been closely involved with the group.
Companies House records show he was a director of Momentum Campaign (Services) Ltd, one of the two companies controlling Momentum, until October 20. Momentum’s leadership is also closely intertwined with that of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), a far-Left group chaired by the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell.
Its secretary was Andrew Fisher, Mr Corbyn’s controversial adviser suspended by the party after supporting anti-Labour candidates. Mr Lansman, Momentum’s director, is a member of the LRC’s national committee. Momentum’s social media co-ordinator, Marsha-Jane Thompson, was until recently vice-chair of the LRC. In an internal LRC paper seen by The
Sunday Telegraph, the group states that it may fold itself into Momentum and adds: “The task of Momentum must be to turn the attention of their supporters towards the battles that will take place within the Labour Party.”
The paper makes clear that the principal target is Labour MPs, about whom it is vitriolic, saying: “Barely 20 of more than 200 Labour MPs support [Mr Corbyn] as leader.
“Some lose no opportunity to run to the capitalist press and denigrate him … Their loyalty is purely to their own careers … Jeremy has preached conciliation, but all his opponents show in return is disloyalty.”
Ominously, it adds: “Momentum … is intended to continue and carry through the Corbyn project, a top-to-bottom renewal of [the] Labour Party.”
Mr Lansman edits a hard-Left website, Left Futures, which attacks moderate Labour MPs. One article on it last week said that if such MPs “want to play these silly little games [opposing Mr Corbyn], they can expect their ugly machinations to meet a suitably measured and proportionate response.”
Another Momentum activist, Simon Hewitt, from the Leeds Central constituency of the shadow foreign secretary, Hilary Benn, delivered a warning in this month’s issue of the LRC journal,
Labour Briefing.
He said: “If your MP is voting in Parliament against the policies that Jeremy won the leadership with, it is absolutely essential that Left-wingers organise to trigger reselection … Jeremy’s leadership will only be successful if he has the support of the Parliamentary Labour Party. You can make that support a reality.”
Mr Benn opposes Mr Corbyn’s policies on the EU and Trident. Moderate activists in Leeds told The
Sunday Telegraph that Momentum had already started lobbying members and constituency officials using private contact details supplied to the Labour Party. “There will be complaints about this,” said one councillor. “It is illegal and a serious breach of privacy.”
Party sources said Mr Lansman is locked in dispute with Labour officials over the ownership of this personal information, including hundreds of thousands of telephone numbers and email addresses, given by Labour to the Corbyn campaign so it could canvass during the leadership election.
“Data protection law is clear,” said one source. “You cannot pass personal information given to one organisation, the Labour Party, for one purpose to a completely different organisation, Momentum, for a different purpose.”
However, Momentum has already conducted at least one full phone-banking session, on October 12, using the “illegal” information.
It says it is entitled to hold it as the official “successor” to the Corbyn campaign. A spokesman for the Data Protection Registrar said no complaint had been received, but confirmed that Momentum was not registered to hold personal information, as the law requires.
Moderate Labour activists stressed they believed most individual supporters of Momentum were not members of the organised hard Left.
“They are mostly people, often young people, spontaneously and genuinely enthused by Corbyn,” said one London activist. “But the knife-wielders like Lansman clearly do want to organise them and use them against us.”
Party rules allow activists to call a “trigger ballot” to force sitting MPs to face reselection.
Many seats will also be redrawn under boundary changes, often triggering a reselection battle automatically.
The main battles will not begin for a year but the London activist said there was already “concern” for two Labour MPs in south-east London, Vicky Foxcroft in Lewisham Deptford and Jim Dowd in Lewisham West.
Lewisham West is one of only five constituencies where the local party nominated Mr Corbyn for the leadership but the MP nominated the most Right-wing candidate, Liz Kendall.
An active Momentum branch, including Trotskyites from the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, has already held two meetings in Lewisham, each attracting about 80 people, and will hold a third tomorrow to discuss whether the local Labour council should implement cuts or pursue a “more radical form of resistance”.
Momentum is also targeting next year’s elections for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Both are partly elected by proportional representation, with candidates chosen from a “list” according to rankings decided by their party. Momentum is seeking to have Left-wingers promoted up the Labour ranking and moderates demoted, making them less likely to win seats.
‘Momentum is intended to continue the Corbyn project, a top-to-bottom renewal of the Labour Party.’