Momentum Founder Bids to Become Labour Party Secretary

Jon Lansman, a founder of the grass-roots Labour activist wing Momentum is among the front runners standing for the position of Secretary General of the British Labour Party in a development that could spell the end of the so-called "New Labour" era represented by such figures as former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Lansman, a supporter of the Eurosceptic Bennite core of the Labour Party since the early 1980s swept the January elections for the party's National Executive Committee along with two other "Corbynite" activists affiliated with the Momentum movement.

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The position of Secretary General became vacant on February 22 when the then incumbent Ian McNicol stepped down due to continuing tensions over rule changes for party leadership elections in 2016. The steady exit of long-standing leaders in the Labour Party has come after repeated efforts by Labour MPs to unseat Jeremy Corbyn, in part due to his apparent lack of enthusiasm for Britain remaining in the European Union. Mr. Corbyn has however repeatedly survived such challenges due to support from the party's rank and file members, organized in part by Momentum.

The increasing swing of the Party towards a more overtly socialist platform comes as Corbyn supporters have launched a campaign to reinstate the party's historic "Clause IV," dating back to 1918, which calls for the eventual end of the capitalist mode of production and public ownership of all key industries.