The treasurer of Momentum tried to persuade colleagues to resist major changes to the pro-Jeremy Corbyn campaign group by calling for “everyone to be friends and eat cupcakes and think about butterflies”, leaked emails show.

Michael Chessum wrote to Momentum’s 12-strong steering committee to protest against founder Jon Lansman’s rapidly executed plan to require members of the grassroots leftwing campaign group to join Labour.

His pleas were ignored, and Lansman gained the six votes and one abstention needed to impose a constitution that would force members to leave Momentum if they did not comply. The move means Lansman has effectively wrested back power over a group that had seemed to have escaped his control and isolated his internal rivals.

Committee members whose future in Momentum is in doubt include Jill Mountford, of the Trotskyist group Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, and the former Militant activist Nick Wrack, both of whom were expelled from the Labour party last year. Jackie Walker, an activist fighting suspension from Labour has also disagreed with the new structure.

In an email trail detailing exchanges between Momentum’s steering committee members, Chessum, an ally of Mountford and Wrack, grew increasingly exasperated as it became clear that the plans, which were drawn up secretly by Lansman, would be approved.

“This is completely insane. Why won’t you people compromise? Why are you insistent on a split?” he wrote to his fellow committee members, addressing Lansman’s supporters in particular.



Chessum, a former student activist who has written articles for the Guardian, claimed that the plans would destroy an organisation that he claims is pivotal to the left in the UK. “I just want everyone to be friends and eat cupcakes and think about butterflies, and –” at this point he switched to upper case – “NOT SPLIT AND THROW AWAY THE MOST IMPORTANT ORGANISATION ON THE BRITISH LEFT OTHER THAN THE LABOUR PARTY ITSELF JUST BECAUSE YOU LOSE ONE BLOODY VOTE.”



In a further email he wrote: “I’m almost impressed by the heady mixture of deceit, boldness and total lack willingness to compromise with anyone.”

A Momentum spokesperson said: “Momentum’s constitution ensures it is a truly member-led campaigning movement that can help to secure a Labour government. Members are empowered to shape the organisation through directly electing their representatives to the NCG, proposing and voting on constitutional amendments, campaign priorities, and other key decisions via a digital democracy platform.”

Momentum burst on to the political scene in 2015 as a broad, non-aligned campaign group after it backed Corbyn’s first successful party leadership election. In recent months, it has been riven by rows between Lansman, who controls the all-important database, and activists from Trotskyist and hard-left factions.



In December, Lansman lost a crucial vote on the organisation’s structures, preventing him from installing a one-member-one-vote system that his opponents say would have made the group easier to control. His critics say they were astonished by the speed of the so-called “coup”. They say they first heard of the plans in an email sent to members of the steering committee at 7.39pm on Tuesday under the heading “Proposal to steering group: a new constitution for Momentum”. An hour and 15 minutes later, the alleged coup was successfully completed.

Lansman, a longstanding ally of Corbyn, wrote that he had spoken to “the leader’s office and trade unions that have supported Jeremy Corbyn” and had sought legal advice before drawing up proposals for a new constitution. It would require “all members to be party members” and would wind up the existing steering committee, national committee and conference committee.

His email concluded: “If you are happy with all these proposals as they stand, please indicate by email. If there is a majority – I think we all recognise that we shall continue to disagree on this matter – I propose that we seek the approval of members immediately.” It was signed, “In solidarity, Jon Lansman.”

Six minutes after Lansman’s email had been sent, Labour NEC member and Corbyn supporter Christine Shawcroft offered her support. “Hi everyone, yes, I very much welcome this initiative and support the proposed actions being taken,” she said.

At the same time, Momentum’s social media coordinator, Marsha-Jane Thompson, registered her approval. And at 7.58pm, Sam Tarry, an activist for the TSSA union, replied: “You [Lansman] have the support of TSSA, and myself in moving forward.”

Chessum sent his angry reply at 8.02pm, followed by an email from his ally Walker at 8.25pm that said: “Of course I do not agree.”



But at 8.54pm, Lansman sent an email saying that he already had six votes of support and an abstention, which meant his proposals had passed. “Dear Comrades … I do hope we can now build an organisation which the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn and all those who depend on election victories desperately need,” he wrote.

Lansman’s opponents have vowed to fight the new constitution by campaigning among activists on the ground.

Momentum face an uphill battle lasting several years to affiliate to the Labour party, according to senior party sources, who have cast doubt on whether the group would ever be able to affiliate in its current form.

Organisations must have three years of accounts before they can apply to affiliate, and Momentum has been in existence for little more than a year. Organisations that support a particular faction of the party, either left or right, cannot affiliate, and affiliates cannot have a separate political agenda. Some Labour MPs have also said they would oppose any attempt by Momentum to affiliate. One, Tom Blenkinsop, wrote to the party’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, on Thursday, asking him to scrutinise the application.

Also on Thursday, Lansman resigned as a director of Momentum Ltd, according to Companies House records, to be replaced by Shawcroft, who is on Labour’s candidate selection panel for the Copeland byelection at the end of the month.

Crucially, however, Lansman is still the sole director of Jeremy for Labour Ltd, set up during Corbyn’s first leadership election last year. That company is the registered controller of data collected during both of Corbyn’s leadership campaigns, through both Momentum and the official campaigns.

In a statement, Chessum said on Wednesday he and colleagues would fight for a new democratic system within Momentum. ”Abolishing the organisation’s democratic structures by an email vote of a tiny committee in the space of about an hour is no way to build the new, kinder politics that we are striving to create,” he said.