Sam Bright investigates what Jeremy Corbyn’s departure as Labour Leader spells for the movement many believe revolutionised the party on his watch
Since its foundation in 2015, catalysed by Jeremy Corbyn’s shock election as Labour Party leader, Momentum has been the dominant force in left-wing politics.
Exploiting Facebook’s discrimination towards viral online videos, the group and its advocates crushed social media during the 2017 General Election campaign. Momentum estimated its videos were seen by 30% of all UK Facebook users, as it propelled veteran socialist Corbyn to within spitting distance of Downing Street.
While Momentum acted as Corbyn’s loudspeaker in the country at large, it was also busy entrenching his power within the Labour Party.
In 2018, Labour held National Executive Committee (NEC) elections, with nine seats up for grabs. On the party’s governing body, Momentum-backed candidates won every single spot. Even Peter Willsman – who was dropped by the group after journalists exposed his claims that anti-Semitism allegations in Labour had been fabricated – won a position on the NEC, due to his association with the group.
Two years ago, people declared that the ‘Corbyn takeover’ had been completed. Momentum was bulldozing its opponents within the Labour Party, and its figurehead was on the verge of becoming Prime Minister. It was all embarrassingly easy.
“After 2017, we thought we were going to be in Government,” says Matt Zarb-Cousin, former spokesman for the Labour leader. “Everyone thought Jeremy Corbyn was going to be Prime Minister.”
Yet, now, another period of wilderness looms before the left-wing of the Labour Party. It turns out that 2017 was the high-point of electoral Corbynism. Indecision on Brexit took its toll, as the party slumped to just 13.6% of the vote in the 2019 European Elections, and then recorded its worst General Election result since 1935 just a few months later.
Under the weight on this electoral disaster, Corbyn initiated a slow-motion resignation, laying out a months-long process for the election of his successor. The heir to Jezza’s throne, however, came up short. Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was backed by Momentum, suffered a humbling at the hands of Keir Starmer. Perhaps more significantly, Momentum’s command of the NEC simultaneously came to an abrupt end, as two ‘moderate’ candidates won a by-election contest.
So, five years after its creation, Momentum is saddled with several existential dilemmas: how to maintain relevance in a party it no longer controls; how to fill a leadership vacuum left by Jeremy Corbyn; how to engage with increasingly confident rival groups; and how to deal with concerns that it has not lived up to its ideals.
Thinking Ahead
While the answers to these questions might take years to fully crystallise, the debate is far from dormant.
Momentum will this month elect a new National Coordinating Group (NCG) to lead the organisation – following the resignation of its founding father, Jon Lansman. Signalling the first time that Momentum has formally divided into competing factions, there are two groups (typically known as “slates”) contesting this election. Superficially, their manifestos appear aligned. Both want to reform the democratic structures of the organisation; both want to see more devolution of powers to local groups; both want to defend the radical policies of the Corbyn era.
Yet, reading between the lines, and speaking to informed members of the Labour movement, there are some marked differences between the two groups. Indeed, in one sense, they are proxies for a war of control between more senior figures on the Labour left.
One of these factions, Momentum Renewal, is seen as the continuity group, with its candidates broadly aligned with Lansman. Meanwhile its rival, Forward Momentum, is more closely associated with the former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who has given his backing to the group.
Corbyn was the most perfect cipher to run for leader, because he’s the perfect character through which you can project your hopes, your aspirations – he is exactly the same as you.
Nathan Yeowell
There are also fundamental policy distinctions between the two factions. Forward Momentum appears to advocate a more member-led structure, with decision-making opened up to ordinary activists.
“Since joining, I have been disappointed by some the decisions of Momentum,” says Ana Oppenheim, who is standing as a Forward Momentum candidate in London. “Very often it felt like a mailing list, instead of the movement we were promised, where people can discuss ideas, learn from each other and run independent campaigns. It felt like we were given a line to follow from the top.”
As evidence, Oppenheim points to the way Momentum treated its members during the recent Labour leadership contest. The group didn’t allow members an open vote on who it should support, instead presenting the Momentum leadership’s favoured candidates (Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner for deputy leader), with members merely allowed to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
At the time, Oppenheim tweeted to say this was an “insult” to members, and hasn’t changed her mind since. “It felt like Momentum was scared of its members – that it’s scared to give us a voice and see what we want,” she says.
While Momentum Renewal also has policies to improve democracy within the movement – claiming that interactions with members are currently “toothless consultations and rubber-stamping exercises” – it has been noted that Renewal is standing four candidates who currently sit on the NCG and have been, at least in part, responsible for the present approach.
Democratising the Party
In the context of the Labour Party as a whole, this debate over the supposed anti-democratic tendencies of Momentum is more than slightly ironic.
Since 2015, Momentum has led the charge for what it perceives as greater democracy in the Labour Party. In particular, the group has called for Labour members to have a greater influence over party policy and for Labour MPs to be more accountable to their local members.
Despite this, Momentum itself doesn’t seem to have lived by these principles.
In late 2016, there was an attempt by the Trotskyist Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL) to infiltrate Momentum and seize power. In response, Lansman put in place a constitution to cement his power and prevent a coup. Ever since, control of the group has been tightly guarded by Lansman and his acolytes, even when they were arguing for more participatory democracy in the Labour Party.
When Labour’s Deputy Leader Tom Watson