Jeremy Corbyn faces fresh challenge as Labour MPs warn party cannot win through ‘megaphone populism’

Jeremy Corbyn is facing a fresh challenge to his leadership after MPs from across his party warned that Labour cannot win power through populism and the “politics of hate”.

Several former shadow cabinet ministers, current frontbenchers and the party’s former policy chief are among MPs behind the Labour Together group, which will run its own policy-making process in in the hope of shifting the party’s stance on key issues, The Independent can reveal.

In a thinly veiled dig at Mr Corbyn, the group’s leaders said they wanted to move Labour “beyond faction and personality” and away from what they called “Labour populism”. The party needed to do more than “play the politics of hate and shout louder”, they said.

The involvement of prominent figures on left of the Labour Party, including MPs Lisa Nandy, Lucy Powell and Jon Cruddas suggests that opposition to the current direction of the party has moved beyond Mr Corbyn's usual critics.

The steering group of nine MPs behind Labour Together said the project of “renewal” would create a “new political project capable of winning a general election”.

The MPs, who come from different sides of the Brexit debate, said they were launching the group in the wake of “disastrous” results for Labour in last month’s European parliament elections and the ongoing crisis over antisemitism. The party also needed to respond to the possibility of a government led by Boris Johnson and the “growing threat of populism in the UK”, they said.

The move is likely to be seen as another challenge to Mr Corbyn following the launch of a similar initiative by Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, earlier this year. MPs frustrated at the current leadership of the party are increasingly setting up projects outside of its official structures in the hope of shifting its future direction when Mr Corbyn steps down.

MPs said the the work of Labour Together reflected a growing belief that Mr Corbyn’s time as Labour leader was limited, amid growing frustration among his supporters at the party’s position on Brexit and questions over his handling of the antisemitism crisis.

The group is being led by MPs from different parts of the party, including former shadow cabinet ministers Ms Nandy, Ms Powell and Shabana Mahmood, plus Mr Cruddas, Labour’s former policy co-ordinator.

Current shadow ministers Jim McMahon and Steve Reed are also involved, as are rising stars Wes Streeting, Bridget Phillipson and James Frith.

In a joint statement, the MPs said: “Populism divides our country. We will not bring our country back together by shouting through megaphones, setting up single issue protest parties or abusing people in leaflets or online. It’s easy to play the politics of hate and shout louder, but it is harder to do what’s really needed and create a politics of hope.

“Labour is capable of healing these divides, but the European parliament elections show Labour cannot go on as it has. The country is polarised like never before. If we cannot bring our party together we will never bring our country together.”

They added: “Beyond faction and personality, what we need is a new approach to politics. Not a Labour populism but a new political culture that rips up the rule book and requires all of us to behave differently.

“This can be built on Labour’s values of tolerance, fraternity and respect, and will help Labour achieve our purpose of a more just world. It is Labour’s responsibility to bring the country back together, but first we must bring Labour together.”

The MPs are understood to have already met with senior Labour figures, including John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, and Tom Watson, who were both said to be supportive of the project. They have also organised a series of meetings with party members and looking at utilising cutting-edge campaigning techniques.

The announcement reflects a growing battle for the future of the Labour Party as focus begins to turn to a time when Mr Corbyn is no longer leader. MPs on the left of the party have established the Left2030 project to try to ensure his agenda continues under the next leader, while Labour Together has been established as a rival group, designed to promote a centre-left alternative and try to influence future leadership candidates. MPs said the group would be focusing on ideas rather than personalities and so did not pose a direct threat to Mr Corbyn.

It has established a series of policy reviews which will involve senior Labour MPs such as David Lammy and Jack Dromey and is seeking involvement from across the party, ranging from Corbyn-backing campaign group Momentum to the centre-left Progress group.

The MPs behind the move said “urgent action” was needed to address the “crisis” in British politics and said politicians would be unable to overcome divisions in the country or in parliament “while the language, practice and culture of our politics is making things even worse”.

Ms Powell, the former shadow education secretary and an ally of former party leader Ed Miliband, said the group was not a "factional exercise".

She told The Independent: "This is bigger and more long-term than whoever is the leader or whichever is the faction of the moment. There are some deep underlying trends for Labour and for the country and as backbenchers or frontbenchers who aren't in the shadow cabinet, we have the time and space to develop some fresh thinking.

"This is exactly the sort of thing that we could and should have done under any leader in the past and it will be relevant for whoever is the next leader too."

Mr Streeting, the MP for Ilford North, said: “What we’re trying to do with Labour Together is to provide a space to bridge some of the differences in the Labour Party, to bring people together who may not necessarily agree on the future of the left to have a more open, welcoming and inclusive conversation than we’ve seen in too many parts of the party in recent years.

“For those of us who have been critical of the leadership and and the culture that’s permeated in the Labour Party in recent years, there’s an appetite to show we can do politics differently and we don’t have to have the type of politics where people are shouted down and prejudice is allowed to fester unchecked and unchallenged. From the work we’ve been doing so far, it’s clear there is a huge appetite for this.”

He added: "The Labour Party has always been bigger than one individual and individual leader. It's time to stop debating the Labour Party through the prism of Jeremy Corbyn and to instead focus on the ideas that we will need for Labour to win a general election and to change the country. Ultimately Jeremy Corbyn isn't going to be around forever."