Fears for MPs as hard-left take over

There are now fears Momentum supporters could try to vote through hard-line anti-Israel motions in other Labour branches across the UK.

Prof Rosenhead is vice-chair of the anti-Zionist Free Speech on Israel group.

His motion, which was carried at his local party’s AGM, said: “Accusations of antisemitism are routinely made against critics of Israel by its supporters.”

The JC has learned that local activists voted for Prof Rosenhead to be one of their delegates at September’s Labour Party conference in Brighton.

Dr Coral Jones — who was suspended by Labour last year over allegations of sharing extreme anti-Zionist messages on social media — was elected as the new chair of the Hackney branch.

Prof Rosenhead has called for Mr Livingstone’s suspension from Labour over repeated claims about Hitler and Zionism to be dropped.

Appearing in a television debate on Mr Livingstone’s remarks, Prof Rosenhead said: “Everything he said was completely factually correct.”

Dr Jones, a GP and health campaigner, was given a formal warning by the party over her social media messaging and her suspension was then lifted.

Hundreds of new members have joined the local Hackney South Labour branch since 2015.

Around 200 were present for the AGM on June 23.

One local Labour member told the JC: “This Momentum take-over has been on the cards for a while.

“They were organised, they canvassed, they distributed leaflets and at the slate they had five people on the gate saying if you support Jeremy Corbyn follow this slate.

“They won 90 per cent of the positions, while the more moderate party members were just not organised enough.

“They were part of what was called the ‘Hackney South Grassroots Left’ within the CLP, although most of them are Momentum members who vocally support Jeremy Corbyn.”

Voters gave Hackney South MP Meg Hillier a commanding 37,000 majority in last month’s general election.

But there are fears her moderate views will now be increasingly challenged by her increasingly hard-left local party

The same fears exist in Liverpool, where, the JC revealed last week, the driving force in the hard-left coup in Liverpool Wavertree had links with a Trotskyist organisation run by notorious anti-Zionist conspiracy theorist Gerry Downing.

Roy Bentham, who was behind a strongly-worded statement sent to Ms Berger following the take-over, has written for Mr Downing’s Socialist Fight website. Mr Downing was expelled from the Labour Party last year over extremist views, including a vow to address “the Jewish question” and the suggestion that the 9/11 hijackers “must never be condemned”.

Mr Bentham is on the Unite union’s executive council. But a Unite spokeswoman said his statement, which also called on Ms Berger to apologise for voting for military action in Syria, was not written with the approval of the union.

Mr Bentham, who has been pictured with Mr Corbyn, also once retweeted an article claiming allegations that Hamas backed the Labour leader were a “right-wing smear”.

Sources who attended Tuesday’s Wavertree consistency meeting in which Momentum gained nine out of ten local party positions said the atmosphere was “intimidating” and often resembled “a blokes’ night out down the pub”.

One attendee said: “You could only feel sympathy for Luciana. There was a really nasty vibe to the evening.

“There was a group of men, and it was nearly all men, who had clearly been plotting this Momentum takeover of the local party for some time.

“There’s about 2,000 new members who have joined the local party since 2015.

“There’s a small hard-core ultra-left wing group who have basically been waiting to pounce.

“Some of this group, people like Roy Bentham have long been connected to ultra-left groups.

“It’s resembling the Militant takeover of Liverpool all over again.

“The real shame is Luciana is one of the best, and most popular MPs the city could ever hope to have. She is still massively popular amongst the ordinary voters in Wavertree.”

In a statement, Momentum said Mr Bentham was not a member of its group.