Anti-Corbyn Group Amasses £250,000 Fighting Fund

A new group of leading New Labour figures has amassed a battle fund of more than £250,000 to fund campaigners against Jeremy Corbyn.

Labour Tomorrow was founded by the former Gordon Brown aide Nicola Murphy.

Her fellow directors are former home secretary Lord Blunkett and Labour peer Baroness Dean.

It has already won the backing of some key party donors, in an indication the right of the Labour party is galvanising itself for a significant online fightback against the Labour leader and his Momentum campaign.

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It will provide funds for centre-Left political bloggers, activists and campaigners in an attempt to "re-build" the Labour party after successive election failures.

And it says that the party "must go beyond one particular individual".

Electoral Commission records show the hedge fund manager Martin Taylor, who under Ed Miliband's leadership donated £600,000 to the party, has given £180,000 to the group.

The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott - who has also funded Labour candidates in the past - has given £25,000. 

The other donations have come from David Taylor, Betterworld Ltd and Fieldbonds Limited.

Labour Tomorrow's website states that it wants to usher in a "major step-change" in how the party is led, funded and organised.

In a blog post, Lord Blunkett and Lady Dean say Labour Tomorrow is a "new solution to help fund projects to re-energise the centre of Labour politics".

They write: "This is the greatest crisis in our party's history and the outcome is impossible to predict.

"What is clear though is that it will not be a happy one unless there is a major step-change in how our party is led politically, organised nationally and funded."

The group was founded in April but records on Companies House show that Lord Blunkett and Lady Dean were not appointed until 28 June - at the start of the coup by Labour moderates to try to unseat Mr Corbyn.

Ms Murphy is married to the Labour MP and former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie, who has been a fierce critic of Mr Corbyn's leadership.

The list of donations released by the Electoral Commission also seems to show the continued exodus of key Labour donors.

Instead of giving to the party directly, they are instead funding moderate Labour groups or MPs.

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Lord Sainsbury, previously one of Labour's biggest donors, has given £65,000 to the New Labour group Progress.

Sir Trevor Chinn, vice president of the Jewish Leadership Council and former backer of Tony Blair, has given £2,500 to the MP Dan Jarvis, who has been tipped as a future leader, and £5,000 to Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson.

Mr Watson is currently embroiled in a bitter and damaging row with Mr Corbyn after saying that Labour has been infiltrated by Trotskyites.

The Labour leader has accused him of "peddling baseless conspiracy theories".

Another key Labour donor Susan Ruddick previously donated £20,000 to the City of Brighton and Hove Labour Party.

However, now she has given £10,000 to Hove and Portslade MP Peter Kyle, who supports Owen Smith, and who the Corbyn-leaning local party is trying to have deselected.

Momentum has faced questions from a senior Labour backbencher on why it has not filed any accounts despite claiming it receives "£11,000 a day" in donations.

The Electoral Commission said Momentum was made aware any single or combined donation worth £7,500 or more must be declared within 30 days.