Jeremy Corbyn to speak at conference of New Labour group Progress

The Labour leader is likely to face a tough crowd

Jeremy Corbyn will speak on Saturday morning (PA)

Jeremy Corbyn has been announced as the keynote speaker at the conference of New Labour pressure group Progress.

The Labour leader will give a speech to members of the group on Saturday as it meets in central London for its annual gathering.

The organisation, which advocates for a political approach closely associated with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, endorsed Liz Kendall for the leadership of the party in 2015.

“We are pleased to announce Jeremy Corbyn is keynote speaker at the Progress Annual Conference 2016,” a spokesperson for the organisation said.

MPs associated with Progress’s policies and networks have been amongst Mr Corbyn’s fiercest critics – with former chair John Woodcock having previously said the party “cannot go on like this” under his leadership.

The conference is likely to be a tough gig for Mr Corbyn, who hails from the party’s left wing and has been subject to criticism from those further to the right and centre in his party.

If successful the Islington MP could however build valuable bridges with his fiercest critics within Labour, after an unexpectedly reasonable local election result that saw the prospect of a coup against his leadership fade.

Mr Corbyn responded to the local election result by saying Labour needed to do more to win in 2020.

Elements of the party’s left wing have previously criticised Progress. In January, John McDonnell said resignation’s from Labour’s front bench came from “a narrow right wing clique within the Labour Party, based around the organisation Progress”.

Both the late Labour MP Michael Meacher and Jon Lansman, the chair of Momentum, have described the group as a “party-within-a-party” on account of its separate membership structure and internal lobbying activities.

In 2016 the organisation has received funding from Lord Mandelson, the former Labour business secretary, and Lord Sainsbury, a billionaire and close friend of Tony Blair.