Tory moderates meet ex-Labour advisers to learn how to avoid 'Momentum' style takeover

Conservative moderates are meeting ex-Labour advisers from the Blair-Brown era to learn lessons on how to avoid a “Momentum-style” takeover of the party by radical activists.

Tories in the political centre-ground believe intelligence they gather from the ex-senior figures will help their party sidestep any plot to infiltrate the Conservatives.

They are seeking the advice amid claims of an entryism strategy from former Ukip members and activists affiliated to the hard-Brexit backing Leave.EU group.

It comes after two key figures from Leave.EU, including founder Arron Banks, failed in their latest attempt to join the Tories.

A Conservative with knowledge of the meetings told The Independent: “It’s about trying to learn from the mistakes that Labour made that ended up with them being stuck with Jeremy Corbyn.

“It is not clear that the entryism claims being made by some people really amount to much, maybe they do, maybe they don’t.

“But this is about knowing as much as we possibly can about guarding against anything like that happening.”

The operation is not officially sanctioned by Conservative central office, but those meeting the Labour figures say they will be feeding intelligence they receive back to HQ.

The latest published figures showed Tory membership at 124,000, making it less than a quarter of the size of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party and raising the risk that a relatively small number of activists could influence the outcome of a poll.

Leave.EU, which was fined £70,000 by the Electoral Commission for breaking rules on spending during the 2016 referendum, claims its backers are “flooding” the Conservatives.

It argues that it wants to “put the spine back” into the party by encouraging their own eurosceptic members to join, giving them a vote to elect the next leader and maybe even prime minister from the Tory right-wing.

Backers of Boris Johnson have supported the move, calling for the party’s doors to be open to all newcomers in the hope that it could mean the ex-foreign secretary benefits from their support, in the same way Mr Corbyn benefited from an influx of leftwingers into Labour.

Conservative officials have repeatedly moved to block the membership applications of multimillionaire Ukip funder Mr Banks and his associate Andy Wigmore from joining the party.

In a bid to circumvent Tory MP Andrew Bridgen acted in defiance of Prime Minister Theresa May and party bosses by allowing the pair to join his local Conservative association, before the move was snubbed.

MPs who are a part of the “one nation” Tory Reform Group (TRG) have been calling on its members to ensure they are all fully signed up members of the Conservative party in a bid to balance out newcomers from the right.