Labour’s election campaign chief has expressed fears that Jeremy Corbyn’s army of young supporters may not turn out to vote in the local elections, meaning the party might fail to live up to high expectations.



Andrew Gwynne, who is also the shadow communities secretary, said there was a danger that the young voters who backed in Labour at the general election would stay at home.

“That’s why we’ve been trying to make the case that local councils have a big impact on young people’s lives,” he said. “It is so important for young people not to leave local elections just to the over-55s.”

In an interview during which he also suggested that Ken Livingstone should be kicked out of the party , Gwynne said that “odd things can happen” in local elections and that they were a chance to send powerful messages to the national parties.

Gwynne said the polls had been “incredibly unhelpful” to Labour because they raised expectations when the last time the councils had been up for election four years ago the result was generally regarded as a high-water mark for the party.

“We are cautious, we think there will be a good set of local elections for us, but some of the swings required go beyond even the huge swings we saw at the last general election,” he said.

He made it clear that Labour would not reverse the much-criticised cuts to local government funding, but said that money would be committed to areas such as children’s services and adult social care, while the party has embarked on its own review of local government finance.



Gwynne, who represented the Labour leadership in the Commons during the debate on antisemitism earlier this week, acknowledged that the party had been far too slow to recognise the problem within its own ranks. He said Labour had a responsibility “not just to call it out, but to root it out” and that outstanding cases could be resolved by the new in-house legal team and disciplinary panel within weeks.

“That should have been done long before,” he said. “We’ve got to get our act together and I’m sure that is happening now. It’s going to take time to rebuild confidence in the Jewish community, I accept that.”

Asked whether Livingstone, who suggested that Hitler was a Zionist, should be expelled from the party as a symbolic gesture to show it had got to grips with the issue, he said: “It’s a matter for the disciplinary panel, but I don’t think there’s any place in the Labour party for antisemitism. End of.”

Pressed over whether he believed that the former London mayor was an antisemite, he described his remarks as “abhorrent and reprehensible”: “Certainly, the views that led to his suspension I would consider to be antisemitic.”

Gwynne’s comments came as Labour published an analysis showing that Tory cuts to local government are hitting Labour areas, the north of England and the most deprived councils hardest.