Momentum executive member suggests it is inevitable that Jeremy Corbyn will be abandoned by some factions if he is not ‘ideologically pure enough’

Sharp divisions have emerged within Momentum, the grassroots organisation that supports Jeremy Corbyn, following reports of an attempted takeover by Trotskyist and factional groups, an executive committee member has claimed.



Momentum’s women’s officer has written a blog claiming that members of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty and others are seeking to wrest control from its founder, Jon Lansman. Laura Murray, who is also a Labour shadow cabinet adviser, has claimed that ultimately, some activists will try to force Momentum to abandon Corbyn and turn to another leftwing organisation.



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“Jeremy Corbyn will inevitably make one compromise or concession that isn’t ideologically pure enough for them, and they will abandon him and Labour altogether to turn Momentum into a rival leftwing party,” she wrote.

The development has meant that Lansman is threatening to walk away from Momentum, Labour sources said. That would be a blow for Labour’s leader, who counts Lansman among his closest allies and has praised the work of Momentum for energising leftwing politics.

Members of Workers’ Liberty have hit back, saying that Murray is making “untrue” allegations because they successfully forced through measures to democratise Momentum.

Murray’s blog claimed that a row over the form of internal voting structure the group should use at a meeting of its national committee on Saturday ended in bullying and intimidation. Murray, who advises Labour’s town hall spokesman, Grahame Morris, accused AWL members of bullying those they suspect of being “rightwing” or “alt-Stalinist” members.



She even accused one senior AWL member, Jill Mountford, of making one young delegate cry. She claimed that Mountford was “shouting at the younger delegates, heckling them when they spoke, patronising and mocking them directly to their faces, and leaping up out of her chair to contradict every statement they made”. Mountford told the Guardian that she had not bullied anyone, and instead claimed that she was being bullied as a result of claims by Lansman’s supporters.



Murray, the daughter of Corbyn’s close ally and Unite chief of staff Andrew Murray, wrote that Trotskyists had taken over key positions in Momentum. “The dyed-in-the-wool Trotskyists are not the majority in Momentum. But they are a vocal, disruptive and overbearing minority who have won themselves key positions in the regional committees, national committee and even the steering committee,” Murray wrote.

She said ordinary Momentum activists, many of whom are not affiliated to any organisation, had initially come to meetings hoping for a new type of organisation. “We wanted straight-talking, honest politics which put an end to the jargon-laden, focus-group-speak that Tony Blair propagated so well. But we also wanted ‘a kinder, gentler politics’ – Momentum was to be a group built on conciliatory, positive, outward-looking debate, which would be reflected in the way we treated each other, and our opponents. It is this goal which has perhaps fallen most spectacularly on its face,” Murray wrote.



Saturday’s meeting was to decide whether to support the one-member-one-vote (OMOV) system favoured by Lansman, or a delegate-based system, supported by other groups including the AWL, she said. Critics have claimed that a delegate-based system will mean that the hard left will be able to control Momentum’s future direction.

“When I arrived, what I witnessed was horrible. The generational divide was starkly visible for all to see. In the seats in the horseshoe-shape around the room were the pro-OMOV delegates – more likely to be younger, in the Labour party and close to Momentum staff and Jon Lansman.



“In the seats in the centre of the room were the anti-OMOV delegates – more likely to be older, Trotskyist, seasoned in far-left factions, not in the Labour party. It was like a doughnut of desire for change, with a sticky centre of angry socialist stalwarts,” Murray wrote.

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Mountford, who is on Momentum’s national steering committee, said the claims on Murray’s blog were wrong and proof that some members of Momentum did not wish to see democracy in action. She said it was untrue that she wanted to turn Momentum into a separate political party, and denied accusations of bullying. “There was heckling on all sides. I heckled and others heckled me. That is politics.

“It seems to me that some people are upset at losing a vote over democratising Momentum and so they have decided to make claims of bullying. There were 60 people at that meeting, people expressed those opinions, we had a vote and we have decided upon a delegate-based system.



“I did not decide to air the meeting in public – others have done that – and it is this which is damaging to Momentum, not democratic discussions.”

Asked about Murray’s comments, a Labour spokesman said: “We do not

comment on staffing matters.”