Keir Starmer has been urged to thaw relations with the new generation of Labour’s left to maximise the party’s vote share and avoid a hung parliament at the next election.
Senior Labour MPs fear the party is at risk of alienating its core vote as it seeks to entice more of the anti-Tory vote and continue to bridge the Brexit gap.
Momentum is making a “strategic” retreat to local government, focusing less on the parliamentary party and more on feeding a “growing appetite for change and ambition” within local communities.
A Momentum source said: “There’s a hunger for something more than New Labour reruns, a sense that the status quo cannot continue, and a recognition that the massive crises facing Britain demand real ambition.”
The grassroots group has said it wishes to showcase transformative change being delivered locally, with policies including democratic ownership and council housebuilding, which have proved vote winners on the doorstep – as demonstrated by local election victories in Worthing and Preston.
Momentum’s shift comes months after the Guardian reported its future was in peril, with senior insiders urging the group to change its approach and put forward “a coherent plan with a strategy”, regardless of Jeremy Corbyn’s future.
Momentum is apparently attempting to act as a bridge of “unity”, with its insiders claiming many within and beyond Labour are hoping to achieve a bold leftwing policy programme, and close the gap between policies proposed by the UK Labour party and those proposed by mayors and Welsh Labour parties.
An insider said: “We have two key aims: build our bases at the grassroots, and build coalitions across the labour movement for transformative policies. It’s all about the long game.”
The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell insists Starmer must maximise the party’s vote and ensure Labour is a broad church, “where there’s respect for a whole range of views across the political spectrum within the Labour party”.
Some frontbenchers have voiced criticisms of the party’s heavy use of focus groups, with one saying: “There’s so much more to Labour than the ‘red wall’.”
McDonnell said: “We need a united party which appeals to the radical upcoming generation.
“What worries me is that if Rishi Sunak does steady the ship and some of those Tory votes will return to the Conservative party, how do we maximise our vote?
“We’ve got to use every resource we possibly can and if you look at the young, left radical MPs, they have appeal across the board, but they particularly appeal to young people, particularly appeal to members of the BAME community as well, because they are members of that community.
“And if we don’t use that resource, we lose the opportunity of mobilising some of the key votes.”
Rising leftwing stars of the PLP’s 2019 intake include Nadia Whittome, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Olivia Blake and Zarah Sultana. McDonnell said he hoped they were all given experience on the frontbench, otherwise the party would risk wasting their talents as electoral resources.
“Starmer’s weakness lies in that he could be bringing into government with him a new generation of talent who speak for so many communities across the country, not to mention the experience of the likes of Rebecca Long-Bailey and Dawn Butler . He needs to recognise that as a resource.”
Momentum is focused on the long game, working on renewing a broader alliance of the left and soft left within Labour on economic transformation and democratic reform.
A Momentum source said: “We can plant the seeds of this alliance here and now, whether it’s campaigning together on policy and democratic reform, or pushing a transformative political agenda together in local government.”
Momentum’s shift comes after Starmer claimed his project of reforming the party in the aftermath of the Corbyn era must go further and deeper than Tony Blair’s government.
In a speech on Saturday, he said reforms were necessary because an incoming Labour government would have a bigger task than the one that confronted Blair, owing to the severe challenges facing the country, on top of 13 years of Conservative rule.
Hilary Schan, Momentum’s co-chair, said: “In Worthing, we overturned a Tory majority with a bold manifesto and united local party – this is Labour at its best. People are fed up with the status quo, and when we talk about council housebuilding or community wealth-building, it just seems like common sense to voters.”
Before Labour’s national policy forum meets in July to decide what will be put to Labour conference, leftwing activists will continue to call for public ownership of water and other key industries, push for free school meals to be adopted by Labour nationally and for rent controls to be introduced.
Rachel Godfrey Wood, 38, is assuming direction of the organisation’s staff team, under the direction of Momentum’s elected co-chairs, Schan and Kate Dove, and the National Coordinating Group. Godfrey Wood is a longtime Momentum activist who has led the group’s organising efforts within the Labour party since 2017, helping to get an array of now-members of the Socialist Campaign Group selected, and garnering widespread respect across the labour movement.
Godfrey Wood was appointed head of Momentum’s political strategy after the group successfully completed a crucial fundraiser, securing 1,000 additional commitments of continuing financial support from members and supporters.
A Labour party source said: “It’s a bit rich those on the far left who nearly destroyed the Labour party and who now spend their time parroting Tory attack lines against us saying they want unity. Perhaps they should simply respect Keir’s mandate?”
