The Left begins to eat itself: Labour disputes row

Oh dear. This year’s Labour conference was notable for the fact that the big dispute was not between the moderates and the Corbynistas but instead the trade unions and Momentum. With the majority of Labour moderates now resigned to defeat on the direction of the party, it’s fallen to the various Corbynista hard left factions to continue the internal fight.

So, Mr S was intrigued to learn of the latest Left-on-Left action. The elections are coming up for places on National Constitutional Committee – this is Labour’s highest internal body and members of which have the power of expulsion. It follows that who ever is on it with have a sizeable say on how the party handles allegations of anti-Semitism regarding members.

In recent months, the Corbynista candidates have sailed through – with delegates informed who to vote for on left-wing slates. Only this time around there are two left-wing slates. After Pete Willsman was cut from Momentum’s NEC slate after a recording was released in which he suggested Jewish Trump fanatics were behind anti-Semitism allegations, Willsman’s Labour group Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) had joined forces with the controversial Jewish Voice for Labour to release its own slate of preferred candidates:

This has gone down badly with Jon Lansman – Momentum supremo. He says Momentum will still release its own slate of preferred candidates on the grounds that the CLPD’s are too London-centric. The Momentum list has three of the CLPD slate on it and three new candidates:

And in the battle of Corbynista support, the CLPD have won Christine Shawcroft’s backing. Shawcroft was previously head of the disputes panel – until she had to quit over her defence of a council candidate accused of Holocaust denial.

At this point, the Labour moderates might actually have a chance…