A group of former advisers to Ken Livingstone who have been accused of forming a secret Marxist cell have rallied around Jeremy Corbyn.
The hard-left Labour leadership candidate has won the backing of a group of aides to the former mayor of London who allegedly dreamed of turning the capital into a beacon of socialism.
The group was accused in a 2008 documentary of being part of the Trotskyist clique Socialist Action. A spokesman for City Hall refuted the allegations at the time, but others on the left maintained the existence of the secretive entryist group.
The most important of them is Simon Fletcher, a veteran back-room operative who rose to prominence as Mr Livingstone’s chief of staff. In 2013, he was appointed by Ed Miliband to be his trade union liaison officer. He is now masterminding the leadership campaign for the Islington North MP.
Two other former advisers to Mr Livingstone who were accused of belonging to the group have also cropped up as Corbyn supporters. John Ross, who advised on socialist economics, put his name to a letter in The Observerthat defended “Corbynomics”. Jude Woodward, a former culture adviser, is also supporting Mr Corbyn’s bid.
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Asked if he was a member of Socialist Action, Mr Ross said simply: “Please . . .”
Mr Corbyn’s team is drawn from an eclectic mix of backgrounds. Carmel Nolan, his press aide, was a spokeswoman for the Stop the War Coalition, a controversial group that grew out of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Ms Nolan has described the Corbyn campaign as “like Stop the War with bells on”.
Mr Corbyn’s head of strategy is Kat Fletcher, 35, a former president of the National Union of Students who is reported to have belonged to the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, a Trotskyist group.
Mr Corbyn struggled for parliamentary support to make it on to the ballot paper, but his supporters in Westminster include the left-wing stalwarts Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Jon Trickett, and the new MPs Richard Burgon, Clive Lewis and Cat Smith.
The key names within Team Jeremy:
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Jon Trickett MP: A former aide to Peter Mandelson, the ex-business secretary, early in his career, Jon Trickett, below came to prominence spearheading Labour resistance to the Iraq war. He became a key member of the “awkward” squad of MPs who made Tony Blair’s life a misery in the Commons. An Ed Miliband ally during the election, he later said: “I don’t believe for a minute our policies were vote losers.”
John McDonnell MP: One of Mr Corbyn’s closest friends and allies from within Westminster, John McDonnell is tipped to receive a prominent position in a Corbyn shadow cabinet. Following his two failed attempts to run for Labour leader, there have been reports that it was his urgings that led Mr Corbyn to put himself forward. Mr McDonnell also employs Seb Corbyn as a researcher in his office.
Diane Abbott MP: An ally and cheerleader for Mr Corbyn, Diane Abbott also ran unsuccessfully for leader in 2010, so it is likely she’ll be sharing tales with the left-wing frontrunner. Tensions were stoked, however, when it appeared that her campaign team sent out texts without Mr Corbyn’s permission claiming that the Islington North MP supported her bid for London mayor. His team decided not to make “any comment about it”.
Richard Murphy, architect of ‘Corbynomics’: A left-wing tax crusader, Richard Murphy is now envied by many economic experts on the left: he is credited with being the mastermind behind Mr Corbyn’s economic policies – dubbed “Corbynomics”. His friendship with Mr Corbyn was given a boost by their shared interest in “tax justice” and he has argued that his ideas have “already gone mainstream in Europe”.
Simon Fletcher, campaign chief: Former chief of staff to Ken Livingstone, Simon Fletcher once said: “I would say I don’t really sneeze without the Mayor’s permission.” A vegetarian accused of being a member of secret Trotskyite faction Socialist Action, he went on to work for Ed Miliband. Now he is credited as the brains behind Corbynmania.
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Kat Fletcher, head of strategy and key aide: In charge of an estimated 5,000 volunteers, Kat Fletcher is chief strategist. She was the 50th president of the National Union of Students. In a profile in The Guardian more than a decade ago, she was described as a “symbol of the dissatisfaction of a student movement betrayed by its government”. Ms Fletcher also listed her likes as the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and student activism and her dislikes as the Daily Mail and apathy.
Carmel Nolan, head of press: Carmel Nolan is, like Mr Corbyn, an architect of the Stop the War coalition. She recently described the campaign team as a “coalition of the willing and available” and “like Stop the War with bells on”. Her daughter, Hope, at the age of eight, is credited with coming up with the name “Respect” for George Galloway’s anti-war party.
Seb Corbyn, son, aide and bag carrier: Mr Corbyn has also recruited a family member to his inner-circle. His son, Seb, has been following Mr Corbyn snr around on the campaign trail since his nomination. Seb studied Politics, Psychology and Sociology (PPS) at Cambridge University. He once tweeted a picture of his left-wing father dressed as Father Christmas, brandishing gifts.