Guido can reveal the existence of a secret email group used by veteran Trotskyists organising to take over Momentum. An alliance of Trotskyist factions used a private mailing list named “Momentum Informal Contacts” to discuss how to vote at Momentum’s conference last week. Emails leaked to Guido show Sacha Ismail from the Alliance of Workers Liberty, Rebecca Anderson from Workers’ Power, Delia Mattis from the the Independent Socialist Network and Tina Becker from Left Unity and the Communist Party of Great Britain have formed a huge Momentum super-faction. In the emails, the various factional leaders refer to themselves as “we” and celebrate the “fantastic gains” they have made.  It is an unholy alliance of senior Trots.

What is their motive? A senior former AWL source tells Guido that the Trots are seeking to take over or split Momentum. They confirm allegations made by shadow cabinet aide Laura Murray yesterday that the Trotskyist faction is battling Momentum chief Jon Lansman and younger members of Momentum for control. The AWL want Momentum to organise in constituencies, setting up their own branches and parallel structures to the Labour Party, essentially forming a rival party. This is opposed by other more moderate Momentum members. The AWL see themselves as “democratising” Momentum and claim the Lansman wing are “Stalinists”. 

How significant is this Trotskyist threat to Momentum? Sources in the group say very. The AWL-led alliance is highly experienced and organised, many of them are Oxbridge-educated, the group runs public speaking training sessions for its members. They have money too – Guido is told some AWL members pay a subscription fee of £120 per month. The anti-Trot Momentum members are by contrast disorganised, inexperienced (other than Lansman) and, as one Labour organiser source puts it, “don’t have a clue”. Evidence of a Trotskyist super-faction will terrify those currently in charge of Momentum. Who’d have predicted Momentum would be torn apart by splitters…