Hattersley says party now worse off than in the 1980s

A LABOUR peer has warned that the party is in a worse situation now than in the 1980s when Neil Kinnock confronted the hard-left Militant Tendency group.

Sheffield-born Lord Hattersley, 85, the party’s former deputy leader, says ‘things are much more serious now’.

He said: “In the 1980s, there was entryism, there was the Militant Tendency, but they only operated in one or two small constituencies.

“They didn’t control the machine, they certainly didn’t control the leader, there were trade unions who were prepared to stand out against them and we always knew that the battle in the 1980s would eventually be won.

“Now things are much more serious because people who are not ‘real Labour’ as I define it are increasingly in control of the machine, they’re increasingly taking over constituencies, they’re increasingly bullying moderate MPs.

“And if it goes on like this the Labour party is in danger of disintegration.”

The comments came after a senior Shadow Cabinet Minister said she has been “frustrated” at the slow pace of steps taken to tackle anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner admitted the implementation of measures outlined in Baroness Chakrabarti’s 2016’s report into the problem was not moving “as fast as I would have liked to have seen”.

She also defended fellow Labour MP Thangam Debbonaire, who was heckled at a meeting of her constituency party in Bristol for attending an anti-Semitism demonstration in Parliament Square.