Corbyn campaign looks to mobilise thousands in the North

Thousands of Corbynistas are expected to turn out to back the leader at a series of rallies in the North of England organised by Momentum.

Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign hopes that events in York, Leeds, Hull and Liverpool over the weekend will mobilise large numbers of the grassroots membership as he aims to replicate the successful nationwide speaking tour of last year’s contest.

Corbyn will be joined by fellow core MP supporters Richard Burgon and Imran Hussain as well as local councillors in each of the cities.

The Labour leader’s campaign launch in Salford last week drew 1,700 supporters. In it, he pledged to campaign against the “five ills” of society, which he described as inequality, neglect, insecurity, prejudice and discrimination. Since then, his campaign has released videos urging members to back the Islington North MP, with the most recent one arguing Labour’s policy to re-nationalise the railways stemmed from his leadership.

The rallies follow planned legal action from Corbyn supporters to challenge the national executive committee decision to exclude from the contest members who joined after January 12. The six-month cut off excludes newer members, who are believed to be largely supportive in favour of Corbyn’s leadership. Over 1,500 backers have donated £26,000 to fund the case.

Momentum has also confirmed it will run four full days of fringe events at Labour Party Conference in Liverpool this year, with a promise to “bring in voices that won’t necessarily otherwise be heard”, according to BuzzFeed. Critics of the group have described the move as an alternative conference.