Corbyn won't be able to put any of his ideals into practice if left-wing MPs aren't selected

If the word 'selection' functions like party political Nightol, then remember this: as long as they win their seats in the next election, the candidates being selected now are the individuals whom a Prime Minister Corbyn would rely on in the Commons

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attends a Momentum rally in July 2016 (Getty)

A recent slew of media reports may have given you the impression that Labour is consumed by an argument about whether or not its members should be able to deselect their MPs. But around the country a different battle is occupying the party’s activists.

Dozens of constituency Labour parties have already begun choosing their candidates for the next general election, and the word is that the left hasn’t been doing well in those votes.

If, to you, just the word “selection” functions like party political Nightol, then remember this: as long as they win their seats in the next election, the candidates being selected now are the individuals whom a Prime Minister Corbyn would rely on in the Commons. It’s widely expected that, if he enters office, he’ll come under historically unprecedented pressure from the right. In that case, he’ll be especially keen that his backbenchers are sympathetic and loyal.

Who gets chosen in these obscure local votes could, then, alter British political history.

For our legislature to function properly, and, more generally, for us to have even a semblance of democracy, we need MPs who question, critique and challenge their party’s leadership. During the last two years, however, Labour’s right wing has gone a bit further than that, trying to destablise Corbyn, and then criticising him for not being stable. Their aim is to return the party to the free market agenda of the 1990s and 2000s.

It’s understandable, then, that the left of the party hopes these local ballots will construct a bulwark of sympathetic MPs against the right. But data on the LabourList website shows that, of the 32 target seats where members have already chosen their candidate, only eight have selected an individual backed by the grassroots pro-Corbyn group Momentum. The “incumbency factor” has helped those failed candidates from last year’s election who want to try again, most of whom are not Corbynites. Recent reports have given the impression that it’s been tough few months for Corbyn supporters, even though Momentum was supposed to have taken over the Labour party.

But such stories are misleading. Momentum is just one element – an influential but plural one – within the growing Labour left. Consequently, it’s by no means the only group in the Labour movement whose backing reflects an expectation that a candidate will support Corbyn. Unite, led by the party leader’s ally Len McCluskey, has backed a range of candidates, including some from the “soft left”, but all of them support the direction that the party has taken under Corbyn. And if you look beyond the headlines, LabourList’s data indicates that 14 of the 32 candidates selected so far are individuals from the further left in the party, regardless of Momentum backing.

For the left to win nearly half the party’s target candidacies is, by any standard – but especially by historical ones – a strong showing, and the suggestion repeated across the media that Momentum might have lost momentum is not very convincing. That narrative just reflects how far the left has come since the days its voice was suppressed within Labour.

The party’s members are expected to choose another 18 candidates during the next two months, with several races being decided this week. If left-wing members can pull out the stops – if more of them knock on doors, ring round their fellow members, and engage other activists in politely persuasive conversations – then they can look forward to being thanked, in a few years, by a Prime Minister Corbyn.