A BITTER fight for the soul of the Labour Party has begun.

The stage set for leadership contenders Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith, reads: ‘Choose Labour’s next Prime Minister’. 

It’s already six long years since the party last had a PM in Downing Street.

Ordinary party members are now left to ponder how many more years they must wait.

The dire polls indicate a period in the wilderness perhaps even longer than the four successive defeats, suffered at the hands of the Tories, in the 1980’s and 90’s.

Make no mistake the choice facing members in this election is stark. Is Labour a radical party of government?

Or is it a party of protest like the Greens and other political fringe groups?

The brutal fact is that the most progressive political party of government since 1945 - Labour and the left - "teeter on the brink of disaster”.

These are not the words of some Blairite conspiracy, but the sobering thoughts of Owen Jones.

I use the word ‘cult’ to describe the phenomenon that is Jeremy Corbyn to crystallise what is really going on in some sections of the Labour party membership.

The vast majority of party members join Labour to be part of a movement. By definition, a movement – including the values that drive progressive social change – is more important than any one personality within it.

Now it’s a fact that Momentum Ltd is a private registered company formerly known as the Jeremy Corbyn campaign.

In other words, Momentum to its core is about one thing, and one thing only: generating a cult following around Jeremy Corbyn.

Their spokespeople are on record saying they are uninterested in winning elections. It’s vital party members back a new Labour leader that is.

  • Tom Bewick is a Labour councillor for Westbourne