Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum, has said he will use his new position on Labour’s key decision-making body to push for sweeping changes to the party’s campaigning, mirroring the strategy pushed by his grassroots activist group.

Lansman, who won one of the three new posts on the national executive committee (NEC), said his focus would be transforming Labour into a community organising movement.

The election of Lansman, Yasmine Dar and Rachel Garnham strengthens Jeremy Corbyn’s support base on the NEC and potentially paves the way for it to support a method for reselecting MPs.

Lansman, a veteran campaigner who backs party reforms including mandatory reselection, said Labour should be working in tandem with community activists on a range of social issues.

Momentum has already begun a series of initiatives including “food clubs” to distribute food to struggling families and acting as volunteer advocates in tribunal cases for those affected by benefit sanctions.

Lansman said he wanted to see Labour take on a similar community organising role.

“For too long, politics has been top heavy and Westminster-centric,” he told the Guardian. “If we want to transform society for the many, not the few, we need a socialist Labour government that works in tandem with experienced activists on the ground, who understand their communities and are given the resources and training to transform them for the better.”

Labour has said it will create a community organising unit to help members start local campaigns that could be scaled up to a national level.

Lansman said he wanted to see the unit expanded, calling it a “vital step towards a social movement-style party”.

The election of the three Momentum candidates was decisive, as each received more than 62,000 votes, compared with 39,000 for the next nearest candidate, Eddie Izzard.



Really honoured to now represent almost 600,000 members on the national executive of @UKLabour - at last the 21st century version of the Socialist party I joined 44 years ago pic.twitter.com/53ot5DMpjO — Jon Lansman (@jonlansman) January 15, 2018

The positions representing party members were created in response to the surge in Labour membership under Corbyn.

“I’ve dreamed for a members-led Labour party. I think, I hope, that’s what we’ll have,” Lansman told the BBC’s Pienaar’s Politics on Sunday.

“Members will have nine out of a 39-member executive, still under one-quarter, but much better representation, a reward that 600,000 members achieved such a fantastic turnaround in the general election.”



The balance of the NEC has been in Corbyn’s favour since the unexpectedly positive result in the election last year, but the changes should give him a large majority on the body.

Previously, Corbyn-sceptic rebels on the committee, including Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, made it clear that they were no longer prepared to challenge his authority and believed he had won the right to make the changes he desired.

A review of party democracy led by the former MP Katy Clark is to examine whether MPs should face mandatory reselection triggered by party members and local affiliates, which include trade union branches.

Sources close to the NEC said there would be little the committee could do to shield MPs should the leader’s office decide to press ahead with such a measure. But two influential unions, Unison and GMB, are understood to be sceptical about the change.

“The leader’s office could do whatever they wanted, technically, but the unions are still extremely influential,” one source said. “It will be interesting to see how people like Lansman get on with the unions; they don’t always agree on issues and the unions will still be able to outvote them.”