Analysis: Cracks appearing in the court of Jeremy Corbyn risk becoming ‘fundamental dividing lines’ in the Labour Party On Sunday afternoon, there was a quiet but collective sigh of relief to be heard around Labour’s headquarters on Southside. […]

On Sunday afternoon, there was a quiet but collective sigh of relief to be heard around Labour’s headquarters on Southside.

Jon Lansman, the founder of Momentum, the grassroots campaign group that formed around Jeremy Corbyn’s first leadership victory, announced he was dropping out of the race to become general secretary of the party’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC).

Mr Lansman’s decision to stand placed him at odds with Mr Corbyn’s preferred candidate Jennie Formby, a senior official within Unite the union.

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Trade offs

The fissures started to appear in the middle of last week, when PoliticsHome revealed that veteran activist and senior Momentum official Christine Shawcroft had called on the party to cut links with the “major trade unions”, which she said were “actively opposed” to the party’s rank-and-file members.

By dropping out, Mr Lansman allows Labour’s leadership to dodge a potentially damaging and fractious process in its bid to name the successor to Iain McNicol to the powerful role.

But the slight reprieve gained from Mr Lansman’s decision to withdraw from the contest merely papers over the cracks that are rapidly creeping across the left wing of the party.

Up to now, Labour’s left wing had been galvanised by the sustained challenge to Mr Corbyn’s position at the head of the party, uniting both the trade unions and Momentum in the face of a common enemy.

The absence of any threat to Mr Corbyn’s leadership has allowed the party to settle, bringing with it the usual political spats and disagreements that occur at the top of any political party.

Losing momentum

A spate of high-profile contradictions between Mr Corbyn and his right hand man John McDonnell are a case in point; illustrated most recently on Sunday when the former slapped down the latter over a potential boycott of the Kremlin-backed TV network Russia Today.

According to insiders, this is merely a sideshow, and put down to an overeagerness on the Shadow Chancellor’s part to try to nullify any potentially damaging stories in his bid to win the general election.

“John is is trying to neutralise any stories that will have an impact on Labour’s popularity. He has a far sharper eye on the party’s electability than [Executive Director of Strategy and Communications] Seamus Milne,” one backbench MP told i.

Of far greater concern for Labour is the rumblings of a civil war on the left of the party.

“There is a fundamental dividing line between Momentum and the trade union movement, which is a serious one about the principles of the party,” another Labour MP said.

Momentum and its affiliate grassroots groups, such as Novara Media, have a completely different outlook of how the Labour party should function, the source said.

“Labour has always been a collective of different members, including the trade unions, different socialist groups, such as the Co-operative movement, the Fabian tradition – it’s a broad left coalition. The party has always given a voice to each of those, and it has been a very effective way of managing the party,” the MP said.

But according to members of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Momentum does not subscribe to those principles, as has been seen in the threats of de-selection of MPs by grassroots activists, and Ms Shawcroft’s recent broadside against the unions.

Court of Corbyn

“Momentum wants to dismantle the traditional structures of the Labour Party and is demanding the party of that broad left coalition be more hard left and ultra-democratic in terms of its structures. The only people whose vote counts are members,” the MP added.

“The trade unions are beginning to wake up to the fact that MPs have been marginalised – and they’re next.”

How this will pan out is now the question on Labour MPs’ lips. At the centre of it all is Mr Corbyn, who will have to try to step in and mend the divide between two sides he is reliant upon. But his contingent in Westminster are not hopeful of his ability to bring the warring factions together.

“The wider PLP is just sitting back and watching,” the backbencher said. “Most Labour MPs apart from one or two exceptions feel very strongly about the trade union connection.

“Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t do damage limitation. He doesn’t get stuck into these debates and discussions. Seamus Milne exercises a disproportionate amount of influence in the leader’s office. It’s not a battle in the court of Jeremy Corbyn and it’s hard to see him coming down on one side or the other.”