Labour figures in Northern Ireland quit, claiming secret group within the party Most of the key figures in the Labour Party in Northern Ireland tonight resigned from their leadership positions after alleging […]

Most of the key figures in the Labour Party in Northern Ireland tonight resigned from their leadership positions after alleging a secret internal attempt to subvert the party.

Six people – including the chair and vice chair – who have been campaigning vigorously for Labour’s ban on fielding candidates in Northern Ireland to be lifted have now walked away from their roles, claiming that a “small minority” of hard-left members had made their work impossible.

The split comes after several years of strong Labour growth in Northern Ireland’s 18 constituencies where in a few years its membership has swollen from around 300 to more than 2,000, partly due to members who have joined in order to vote in the party’s leadership contests.

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Entryist suggestion

Although they did not use the word in their resignation statement, the members appear to be alleging an entryist attempt to take over the party in Northern Ireland.

Labour and other left-wing sources claim that recent or current members of the Socialist Party, the Socialist Workers Party and People Before Profit have recently joined Labour in Northern Ireland.

Those who have resigned are chair Anna McAleavy, vice-chair Damien Harris, vice chair membership Peter Dynes, secretary Kathryn Johnston, disability officer Keith Gray and women’s officer Mary Sheen.

In a statement, the six said that they would remain active members of the party.

They said: ‘We do not resign lightly. Instead, it is a heavy decision which has weighed on us for several months. It became evident from a very early stage that there are diverse and inimical political parties secretly organising within the LPNI contrary to Chapter 2 of Labour Party Rulebook 2017.

“Although these are a small minority among our committed and hardworking activists, members and supporters, they are a vocal and troublesome element. ‘This has presented us with irreconcilable difficulties.”

Meetings ‘left me despondent’

Mr Harris, a self-described “centrist”, told i that every time he had gone to a party meeting recently he had been “filled with a sense of dread” and that leaving every meeting he was “despondent, almost broken”.

He said that there had been “discord within the party” with “factions working within and no harmony or unity left any more” but stressed that those responsible were a “small element” of a membership which has rapidly swollen to more than 2,000 members in recent years.

Mr Harris said that he and his colleagues had warned Labour headquarters about what was going on but were “basically told ‘sort it out yourselves’”.

Mr Harris added: “I do fear the party being dragged to the extreme left, the far left and way beyond that. I don’t like the doctrinal dogmatic approach to politics that certain elements within our party would like to see.”

Review of elections ban

The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) is due to conduct a fresh review of its ban on members standing for election in Northern Ireland, a policy which stems from the party’s long-standing relationship with the nationalist and more socially conservative SDLP which until recently had three MPs but now has no Westminster representation.

The resignation statement from the six Labour members said that they wanted to see “a period of calm and reflection before the UK Labour National Executive Committee begin their review of LPNI’s right to stand.

‘We will be meeting the NEC panel to discuss our recommendations, which include a complete restructuring of the NI membership as a regional structure, much like Scotland and Wales, and the subsequent establishment of local branches.

‘We will still be attending national conference, we will continue campaigning in our local areas and around our particular responsibilities, and will still be active within our trades unions and community and tenants’ organisations.

‘As far as possible until such time as an Emergency Special Meeting may be convened to elect a new Executive Committee which can have the confidence of all the membership, we shall be working

with UK Labour and with Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Owen Smith MP, to ensure that we are, as far as possible, open for business as usual.”