:00:00. > :00:00.My thanks to Greg Hands, Tom Brake and Neil Coyle,
:00:00. > :00:13.Will Jeremy Corbyn be able to reunite the Labour Party if he's
:00:14. > :00:26.If Theresa May facing a backbench rebellion over her Brexit strategy?
:00:27. > :00:29.And does Tim Farron have any chance of staging a Lib Dem comeback
:00:30. > :00:42.Back with me now is Helen Lewis, Isabel Oakeshott and Tim Shipman.
:00:43. > :00:44.Also, following on from our interview with Labour MP Peter Kyle,
:00:45. > :00:46.who's complained that some Corbyn supporters are trying
:00:47. > :00:48.to deselect him, we can speak to the national
:00:49. > :00:50.organiser for Momentum, James Schneider, who joins
:00:51. > :01:04.James, there is mounting evidence that one of the purposes, one of the
:01:05. > :01:11.purposes, of Momentum is to get more Corbyn friendly Labour MPs elected.
:01:12. > :01:16.Are you still denying that? There is not mounting evidence that Momentum
:01:17. > :01:21.is campaigning for the. We are not campaigning for the selections. The
:01:22. > :01:28.one person who is apparently going to appear in a documentary tomorrow
:01:29. > :01:34.calling for Peter Kyle to be deselected isn't a member of
:01:35. > :01:38.Momentum. So you would urge all Momentum supporters in Brighton and
:01:39. > :01:43.Hove to back Mr Kyle, the sitting MP? That is not what I'm saying, I'm
:01:44. > :01:46.saying selections are a matter for local party members and affiliates
:01:47. > :01:54.and it is their right to decide what they would like to decide. Momentum
:01:55. > :02:00.is not campaigning to reselect any particular MPs. So why was Mr Sandel
:02:01. > :02:05.addressing a group of Momentum supporters, telling them how to go
:02:06. > :02:12.about deselecting anti-Corbin Labour MPs? He was invited by one local
:02:13. > :02:18.group. In a big organisation which is very, very active, 150 groups,
:02:19. > :02:22.18,000 members, tens of thousands of activists, people have democratic
:02:23. > :02:26.debate and get invited for talks, that is normal. One meeting does not
:02:27. > :02:34.dictate national policy. Are you telling us today that Momentum, at
:02:35. > :02:39.the local level, is not and will not be involved in any efforts to
:02:40. > :02:42.replace sitting MPs? What I'm telling you is that the selections
:02:43. > :02:46.are a matter for local Labour Party members and affiliates. It is their
:02:47. > :02:49.right to choose through the mechanisms laid down by party
:02:50. > :02:56.conference and the National Executive Committee, to do that,
:02:57. > :02:59.that is completely normal. What I am saying is Momentum is not
:03:00. > :03:06.campaigning for any deselection. Even at a local level? Momentum is
:03:07. > :03:10.not campaigning for deselection. Are you telling me Momentum is not
:03:11. > :03:15.involved in trying to get rid of local MPs at local level, is that
:03:16. > :03:19.what you are saying? Andrew, what I'm telling you is that selections
:03:20. > :03:24.and elections within the Labour Party are the democratic right for
:03:25. > :03:32.members and affiliates. We are not trying to interfere with that, one
:03:33. > :03:35.way or the other. There may be members of Momentum who are members
:03:36. > :03:39.of the Labour Party who take a particular view on their MP, for
:03:40. > :03:44.example myself, I am a member of Momentum and the Labour Party, I
:03:45. > :03:51.take the view on my MP, I really like my MP. Who is your MP? Keir
:03:52. > :03:58.Starmer. So his position is safe from Momentum? All MPs' positions
:03:59. > :04:02.are safe... We have got Len McCluskey of Unite saying it is time
:04:03. > :04:08.to get rid of MPs who have been overcritical of Mr Corbyn, Mark
:04:09. > :04:13.Sandell lecturing Momentum on how to unseat sitting MPs, Clive Lewis
:04:14. > :04:19.describing deselection as simply democratic selection. Have you not
:04:20. > :04:26.had the memo yet? Andrew, selections, as I keep on saying, are
:04:27. > :04:30.the democratic right of local party members and affiliates. I am not
:04:31. > :04:34.trying to stop anybody having those rights, those rights are extremely
:04:35. > :04:37.important in a democratic party, but what I'm not going to do is be
:04:38. > :04:41.goaded into saying something I don't think, which is that Momentum should
:04:42. > :04:46.be organising for deselection is because that is not what we are
:04:47. > :04:50.doing. You are not being goaded, simply questioned. Is it correct
:04:51. > :04:56.that Momentum would like to have, or plans to have, what it is calling an
:04:57. > :04:59.engagement officer in every constituency Labour Party just to
:05:00. > :05:04.keep an eye on what is going on? Can you tell us what the engagement
:05:05. > :05:10.officer would do? It is half true. If you look at the guidelines on
:05:11. > :05:14.Momentum's website, to be a verified local Momentum, you need positive
:05:15. > :05:18.engagement with your local Labour Party, local trades union branches,
:05:19. > :05:21.community and activist groups, so each group has Labour Party
:05:22. > :05:26.engagement officers so that people are making sure they are taking part
:05:27. > :05:30.in the party, we want people to be as involved in the Labour Party as
:05:31. > :05:40.they can be, to be campaigning and part of a Democratic Party. Thank
:05:41. > :05:41.you, I know this was short notice, thank you for joining us this
:05:42. > :05:44.morning. Let's move on because we talked
:05:45. > :05:46.about Labour at the beginning. To the Lib Dems. Theoretically, the Lib
:05:47. > :05:49.Dems, at this point, given what is happening to Labour, given Mrs May
:05:50. > :05:54.and grammar schools, there could be an opening for the Lib Dems, but is
:05:55. > :05:58.there any sign of it? At the moment the thing that Tim Farron could do
:05:59. > :06:01.to get noticed would be to go skinny-dipping off Brighton beach
:06:02. > :06:03.because it might get him some press attention. He gave quite an
:06:04. > :06:08.interesting speech which I'm afraid I read on my mobile phone rather
:06:09. > :06:25.than watching in person, which tells a tale itself. This is
:06:26. > :06:28.a guy trying to rebuild locally, get councillors elected again, being
:06:29. > :06:31.relatively successful at that, they just got a 38% swing in athletes the
:06:32. > :06:34.other day against the Labour Party, but it is a long road back and at
:06:35. > :06:36.the moment they are not exploiting the national opportunity they have
:06:37. > :06:38.got. I think the problem they have got is their grassroots network is
:06:39. > :06:41.so depleted, the opposite situation to the Labour Party. They do not
:06:42. > :06:44.have the kind of infrastructure any more, there are no resources, human
:06:45. > :06:49.or financial resources, they don't have the people to go out there and
:06:50. > :06:53.knock on doors. Tim Farron, a great and lovely guy, but he doesn't
:06:54. > :06:57.provide the most charismatic of leadership and they really deep to
:06:58. > :07:02.find something to pin a revival on, and at the moment it isn't there. I
:07:03. > :07:06.am more upbeat than these two, it is a long road back that there is a
:07:07. > :07:11.space down the middle between their Labour is and the Conservatives are,
:07:12. > :07:15.it is very authoritarian at the Home Office which opens up a space for a
:07:16. > :07:19.Liberal party. They have only got eight MPs, if they had more, we
:07:20. > :07:22.would be paying more attention to them. Attention is one of the
:07:23. > :07:26.problems, getting attention is difficult for them, there will not
:07:27. > :07:31.be that many senior journalists at the Lib Dem conference. Then never
:07:32. > :07:33.used to be. We are going way back to where it Lib Dems used to be a long
:07:34. > :07:50.time ago. But it is worse, if you look ten years ago at least they had
:07:51. > :07:52.a reasonable cohort but I don't think the number of MPs is the
:07:53. > :07:54.issue. To get attention you have got to be spiky, punchy, pumping out
:07:55. > :07:57.controversial press releases, they are not doing that. But they have an
:07:58. > :08:00.advantage over Labour, they are used to talking to people who disagree
:08:01. > :08:03.with them, there are relatively few friendly ears for the Lib Dem, and I
:08:04. > :08:08.think there are some signs of resurgence but it is a long road
:08:09. > :08:12.back. There is a new Tory group campaigning for hard Brexit. It is
:08:13. > :08:18.fair to say that the longer Mrs May waits to trigger article 50, the
:08:19. > :08:23.more Tory divisions will come to the surface? I think that is fair
:08:24. > :08:29.enough, absolutely, but I have some sympathy with her position of
:08:30. > :08:33.leaving it until she has got her ducks in a row. Once Article 50 is
:08:34. > :08:37.triggered, there is a limited time frame to work out the negotiations,
:08:38. > :08:42.and you had an interesting guest earlier, we had David Liddington who
:08:43. > :08:47.spent so long on the European diplomatic circuit, and his view is
:08:48. > :08:53.that you do need time to work all this out before you press the button
:08:54. > :08:56.on it. So not this side of New Year? But you cannot leave it forever
:08:57. > :09:00.because there are European elections coming up, it would be ludicrous to
:09:01. > :09:10.be in a position where we are re-elected MEPs. I will out myself
:09:11. > :09:13.as a moaning Remainer. Nigel Farage this morning said people voted to
:09:14. > :09:17.get out of the single market. Did they? Again, no one knows what
:09:18. > :09:20.Brexit means. We will talk more about that as autumn progresses.
:09:21. > :09:24.Jo Coburn will be back on BBC Two tomorrow at noon
:09:25. > :09:26.with coverage of the Lib Dem conference in Brighton.
:09:27. > :09:30.I will bring Tim Farron's speech on Tuesday.
:09:31. > :09:33.And I'll be back with more Sunday Politics live from the Labour
:09:34. > :09:35.conference in Liverpool here on BBC One next Sunday at 11am.
:09:36. > :09:42.Remember, if it's Sunday, it's the Sunday Politics.