Labour backbenchers are preparing to call for a series of MPs’ ballots to signal their dissent from the party’s leadership on policy areas where they believe Jeremy Corbyn is out of step with mainstream public opinion.

Heathrow expansion, which Corbyn opposes, will be the test case for the new approach, which one critical backbencher called “constructively muscular”. If accepted, the proposal could see MPs openly defy the official position of their leader.

Gavin Shuker, chair of Labour’s backbench transport committee, plans to present a report supporting a third runway to Monday’s weekly meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP), and call for a “votable motion” to gauge the views of MPs.

If the PLP chair, John Cryer, agrees to call a vote – as he did when a motion of no confidence in Corbyn was tabled in June – it would act as a strong public signal of Labour MPs’ stance.

Corbyn has said he will not try to whip his party to reject a new runway, but pro-Heathrow rebels believe the lack of an agreed party position will make Labour look weak. A source close to the leader’s office played down the significance of the Heathrow report being presented to the PLP meeting, stressing that MPs were likely to receive a free vote on the issue.

Some are pushing for the same approach to be used to bypass the shadow cabinet and constrain Corbyn’s room for manoeuvre on other contested issues, including the conflict in Syria and the expected US assault to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State.

Chris Leslie, the former shadow chancellor who chairs the backbench economic committee, said: “There is no reason why policymaking needs to be the exclusive preserve of the front bench. We can’t allow the party to drift along, because the public are watching and they want to know what we stand for.”

A source close to the leadership rejected Leslie’s suggestion that backbenchers’ views were being ignored. “Leslie should know the PLP has a role in policymaking via the national policy forum,” the source said, adding: “If it was up to him we would have supported Osborne’s discredited fiscal charter last year, which would have been excruciatingly embarrassing when Philip Hammond abandoned it.”

Corbyn received an angry reception at last week’s PLP meeting for apparently hesitating to condemn Russia’s role in attacks on the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. Some MPs were further angered by his view expressed by a spokesman last week that the focus on Russia “diverts attention” from other “atrocities”, such as those committed by the US-led coalition. “He is trashing the Labour brand,” said one senior party insider.

Another prominent Labour backbencher said the comments on Russia had been very frustrating. “They do not speak for MPs, for Labour voters and not even, I suspect, for the majority of Labour members. But if you disagree with it in public, you get denounced.”

A source in the leftwing Labour grassroots movement Momentum said moves by anti-Corbyn MPs to undermine the leader so soon after his re-election would not be popular with rank-and-file members. “Policy debate is healthy but these committees don’t make Labour policy,” the source said. “Party members will look unfavourably at any actions which undermine our party or our ability to hold the government to account.”

New internal Labour party figures show membership dropped by roughly 1,000 in the week after Corbyn’s victory, caused by the resignation of more than 2,500 members in a single week, which insiders said was extremely unusual. However, the drop in membership was compensated by about 1,000 additional members joining in the week of Corbyn’s victory.

After comfortably winning the summer leadership challenge against Owen Smith and promising to “wipe the slate clean”, Corbyn has tempted some of his critics, including more than 25 MPs who had resigned, back into the shadow cabinet.

He has also beefed up the party’s response to the referendum result by appointing former director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer as shadow Brexit secretary.



But his refusal to back plans for Labour MPs to elect some shadow cabinet posts and the sacking of Rosie Winterton as the party’s chief whip alienated others. Ian Murray, Labour’s only MP for a Scottish constituency, said last week that Corbyn had “set alight” the olive branch he had promised to extend to colleagues.

If MPs do flex their muscles over Heathrow and other divisive issues, it will be an early test for Corbyn’s new chief whip, Nick Brown, a seasoned veteran of party battles. Rather than strengthening the hand of MPs, Corbyn would like to give Labour’s members, who now number more than half a million, a role in policymaking and a beefed-up presence on the party’s key decision-making body, the national executive committee.

John Woodcock, who chairs the backbench defence committee, said: “There certainly has been talk of how we best recognise the strength of feeling and the majority opinion within the PLP. “Where we can best add value is taking a more in-depth and rigorous approach to policy discussions.”

Plans for more prominent backbench policymaking in areas such as foreign affairs were far less advanced, one source said. “We have got to find ways of being more effective, but Heathrow is an immediate policy proposal where we are facing a vote.”