Momentum’s future is at risk of serious financial challenges, the group will warn its supporters this week, amid an exodus of left-wing members from Labour.
The grassroots group, which emerged from Jeremy Corbyn’s 2015 leadership campaign, has launched a fundraising campaign with an appeal to supporters entitled ‘Keep the momentum going’. In a video posted on social media alongside the campaign, the group said: “We can’t let everything we’ve built go away.”
The group relies mainly on individual donations, but also requires supporters to be members of the Labor Party – which has a knock-on effect on its funding, as thousands of left-wingers left Labor under Keir Starmer.
Insiders say Momentum’s financial condition is “serious but not critical” – affected by the impact of inflation and reduced revenue through membership subscriptions. The Guardian understands that Momentum’s membership has fallen by a third from its peak during the Corbyn years.
One Momentum source said the group would not “be able to continue to operate at the level we’ve been at” unless more donations are found.
The fundraiser was supported by a number of left-wing Labor MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group, including John McDonnell and Ian Lavery, as well as members of the 2019 intake such as Nadia Whittom, Zara Sultana, Bel Ribeiro-Addy and Apsana Begum.
But there are also many within the group who believe it needs a fundamental shift in strategy, including a greater focus on political battles the group can influence.
Momentum’s co-chair, Hilary Shan, said it was a difficult time for the left in the Labor Party, amid controversy over party selections where left-wing candidates had been shortlisted. Starmer now also has significant control over the party’s internal machinery, including a majority on the ruling national executive committee.
Shan said members of the left had witnessed “a series of unjustified removals over the past few years, and more recently the stitches with the elections taking away the votes of local members”.
Another senior Momentum source said there needed to be a change in approach from the grassroots group. “It is time for Momentum and the wider Labor left to present a coherent plan with a strategy,” the source said, saying the group no longer had a strong base in the party and needed to find purpose regardless of Corbyn’s future.
James Schneider, a former Corbyn adviser and co-founder of the group, said Momentum was “stuck fighting for its corner in the Labor Party” and said it should direct resources to left-wing causes in the country.
Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you through the most popular stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content funded by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to secure our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
“There’s a progressive energy in the country right now, it’s very much in movements, labor movements, environmental movements, anti-racism movements, etc., and Momentum is a little isolated from that.”
A senior Labor source dismissed a possible collapse of Momentum but said it had an “obsession with damaging the Labor Party” and was out of touch with the modern party. “Let’s be honest: they’re completely irrelevant.”
Shan said the group needed to survive to be able to influence the policies of a future Starmer government. “We’re not in the 1990s,” she said. “The situation that a Labor government will inherit will be very, very different to the situation that Blair inherited in the 1990s. So Starmer’s cool managerial style policies just won’t help. We need to be there with the real solutions that will change people’s lives.”
Add Comment