Momentum Conference Stuffed With Anti-Labour Speakers

Momentum Conference Stuffed With Anti-Labour Speakers
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Pier Marco Tacca via Getty Images

The lineup for Momentum’s Labour conference is full of speakers who have a history of opposing Labour.

The event, which will run at the same time as Labour’s official party conference in Liverpool, includes film maker Ken Loach, who founded Left Unity, a party which stood against Labour. 

Former Labour councillor Ben Powell criticised the decision on Twitter.

Cat Boyd, who as a candidate for RISE stood against Labour in the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections, is also on the list. She tweeted last year that she would “never vote Labour”.

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The list also features Amina Ginchinga, who stood against Labour in May 2016. In April she told political website Red Pepper that Labour needed to be challenged in her borough.

“I’ve been brought up in Newham and there is a strong Labour council there, probably the strongest in the country. They keep getting elected time and time again, and because they’re not getting challenged they’re running riot in our borough”, she said.

“There are so many injustices happening. There are councillors that have properties that they are renting out and they’re not even fit for habitation; so what does it tell us about Labour?”

Mark Serwotka, the General Secretary of PCS union, and a former supporter of Socialist Alliance and the Respect party, is also speaking at the conference. He was denied a vote in the 2015 Labour leadership contest for not sharing the party’s aims.

Jeremy Corbyn, John Mcdonnell, Diane Abbott and Clive Lewis are to make appearances. Organisers have denied it is a rival conference.

The lineup provoked controversy after it was published today for including Richard Seymour, who is alleged to have called for a Jewish journalist’s throat to be cut.

He is also said to have remarked of the Falklands veteran Simon Weston: “If he knew anything, he’d still have his face.”