Pro-Corbyn group Momentum locked in wrangle with children’s charity who say having same name as hard-left organisation loses them thousands in donations
Activist group – credited with propellingLabour boss to win two leadership contests – are being confused with charity, which supports families in Surrey and south-west London
THE PRO-CORBYN group Momentum is locked in a wrangle with a children's charity who say having same name as the hard-lefties loses them thousands in donations every year.
The activist organisation – credited with propelling the Labour boss to win two leadership contests – are reportedly being confused with the charity, which supports families in Surrey and south-west London.
Writing in the New Statesman, journalist Kevin Maguire says schools have begun checking the charity wasn’t the political group.
He said: “On one occasion, charity volunteers at a hospital were berated by a parent who mistook them for Corbynistas.”
And he claims its founder Jon Lansman “has dangled £12,000 to settle the dispute” with the charity, which was set up in 2004.
A spokesperson for them said: “We’re in dialogue with the organisation and are trying to find a solution that works for all parties."
Momentum, the Corbyn-supporting one, grew out of the Islington North MP’s successful campaign to become the party’s leader in 2015, and now has more than 35,000 members.
It has been credited with dragging the party leftwards, and has faced accusations of being a party within a party by Labour moderates.
They have been holding their own parallel conferences down the road from Labour’s official one – called The World Transformed - and its members have won election into official positions in the party.
Last week Mr Lansman was one of the three Momentum candidates elected onto its ruling national executive committee, saying he would use his new position to push for sweeping changes to the party’s campaigning.
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But it sparked a new row over whether they would start pushing for trigger ballots in seats before every election.
This would allow them to de-select Labour MPs they do not like and place more left-wing candidates, something many in the party have feared.
But Mr Lansman stressed that Momentum will not campaign nationally to remove any Labour MPs after reports at the weekend of a “hit list” targeting up to 50 of them for replacement, including former ministers.
He told the Guardian: “No Labour MP that works hard and campaigns and listens to their members has anything to fear from the selection process.”