Labour is being dragged back to dark days of the 1980s by Jeremy Corbyn, warns Alan Johnson Labour is in a worse position than it was during the early 1980s when it was in the grips of […]

Labour is in a worse position than it was during the early 1980s when it was in the grips of the Trotskyist group Militant, former Cabinet member Alan Johnson has warned.

In a blistering attack on the party under Jeremy Corbyn, Mr Johnson predicted it will “end in tears” for the Labour party as he raised concerns about the increasing power wielded by grassroots group Momentum.

His comments come just a week after Labour failed to make expected breakthroughs in key councils in last week’s local elections.

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The former minister compared Labour’s current situation to when parts of it were infiltrated by the far Left group Militant in the late 1970s and early 1980s, particularly in Liverpool.

Worse position

“We’re in a worse position than we were in the early 1980s when Militant tried to take over the party,” Mr Johnson told a conference at Brighton College.

“That is not saying that everyone who has come in since Jeremy won is a revolutionary socialist. But all the old people who were chucked out when Militant was around are back in,” he added.

The 67-year-old also questioned the relevance of Momentum, which he branded as a “fan club” for Jeremy Corbyn.

“Why do we need an organisation within an organisation?” he said. “Particularly as it’s just a fan club for the leader. It worries me because we have a situation where the leadership and all the different parts of the party are part of that group Momentum.”

The former Labour minister said it was “not Jeremy’s fault” that he was leader of the Labour party, and he decried the decision of senior MPs at the time, such as Sadiq Khan and Margaret Beckett, to put him forward in the leadership election. “That was a reckless thing to do”, he added.

Mr Johnson, who also served as Education and Health Secretary during his 20 years in Parliament, condemned Labour’s education policy to scrap tuition fees as “crazy”.

Crazy policy

In the run up to last year’s general election, Mr Corbyn promised to abolish fees at a cost of around £11bn, a move which saw young people vote for the party in their droves.

But Mr Johnson said there were other areas in the education system that were in greater need of funding than relieving graduates of contributing to the cost of their degrees.

“The tuition fees system is the best way of ensuring there is a contribution from students to higher education that was fair and was equitable and was actually working to close the social gap in higher education,” he said. “But we are pledged to abolish it, which will cost £11bn. Crazy. A crazy piece of populism.”