A Labour pressure group associated with a number of West Midlands MPs including Tom Watson is raising money to fight the “hard left”, including the Momentum group which backs Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour First is asking for donations to raise £40,000 for a full-time organiser.
It describes itself as “a network of Labour moderates fighting against Momentum and other Hard Left groups to keep Labour as a broad-based and electable party”.
Momentum is a body set up to support Jeremy Corbyn by Jon Lansman, who was Director of Operations on Mr Corbyn’s succesful 2015 leadership campaign.
Mr Corbyn has spoken at Momentum events, as have senior Labour politicians close to him including Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.
Senior figures in Labour First include John Spellar, the MP for Warley in the Black Country and a veteran of Labour’s battles against left-wing group Militant in the 1980s.
Tom Watson, Labour’s Deputy Leader and MP for West Bromwich East in the Black Country, spoke at Labour First’s 2017 annual general meeting in Oldbury, the Black Country, on November 26. His speech focused on attacking the Liberal Democrats for threatening, he said, to stop Brexit happening.
Supporters include Ian Austin, Labour MP for Dudley North in the Black Country.
Earlier this year he Tweeted his support for the group when it held its 2016 annual general meeting in January. Mr Austin Tweeted: “Huge turnout @labour_first AGM in Sandwell. Great to see so many friends & colleagues committed to Labour winning elections.”
Perry Barr Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, now Labour's Shadow Europe Minister, has also attended Labour First events.
Labour First is attempting to raise £40,000 through crowdfunding website crowdpac.co.uk . It says one of the tasks of the new full-time official will be to help ensure local Labour constituency parties elect “moderates” to represent them at Labour’s annual conference.
The conference influences Labour policy on issues such as Trident and makes rules which could have an impact on party leadership elections, for example by determining how much support from MPs a candidate requires before they can stand as leader. In Labour First also says it wants to set up local groups to counteract Momentum around the country.
Its entry on the website says: “The Hard Left has the resources. Momentum has plentiful funding, staff and data - and they are upping their game. We need to do the same.
“Without a dedicated member of staff to organise for us to win delegate elections to Annual Conference, and to set up local groups to counteract Momentum around the country, we simply won’t be able to stop them. We can’t continue relying exclusively on volunteers.”
The appeal has sparked criticism from some supporters of Mr Corbyn. An article on the Canary website, which has consistently supported the Labour leader, claims it is an attempt to launch a new “coup” against the leader.
It said: “Labour First and the usual suspects across the Labour right are locked in a self-defeating war of attrition. The Labour right: a cluster of political Easter Island statues – their eyes forever fixed on an imaginary horizon, while the world burns around them.”
