Parliamentary reporter @TrinderMatt

LABOUR’S activist base is being gutted from within as local branches face “what appears to be deliberate anti-democratic action” from party leadership, Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) warned today.

The grassroots group said that the party’s survival is now at stake, and published reports from rank-and-file members across the country detailing moves by Labour’s national and regional bureaucracy to disenfranchise activists.

In addition to dozens of suspensions directed from the office of Labour general secretary David Evans, paid regional officers are intervening “arbitrarily” to undermine rank-and-file organisation, JVL charged.

The group noted that meetings are being cancelled, communications shut down, agendas censored, selection processes interfered with, and elected post-holders sacked.

Fellow grassroots groups the Labour In Exile Network and Labour Activists for Justice, as well as legendary left-wing film-maker Ken Loach, have accused Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership team of attempting to purge the party of supporters of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

The Islington North MP was suspended by party officials last October for claiming that the scale of anti-semitism in Labour was “dramatically overstated for political reasons” after the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published its report on the matter.

A decision to readmit Mr Corbyn to the party was made less than a month later by a panel of Labour’s national executive committee.

But Sir Keir has since refused to restore the whip, ignoring a warning by the EHRC against political interference in such cases.

Accusations of undemocratic practices in constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) cited by JVL include a hostile takeover in Bristol West by supporters of Sir Keir after the local party’s co-chairs and secretary were suspended for allowing members to discuss the national leadership’s treatment of Mr Corbyn.

It also notes that members of Chingford and Woodford Green CLP in north-east London had a “freedom to debate” motion rejected earlier this year after three branch members were suspended on unspecified charges.

JVL said: “Our party is in crisis. Members are under attack, our freedom to debate and organise are under the greatest threat since the party was created.

“With our allies in the trade union movement, we have to fight back — and now. This is not the time to leave. The very survival of our party is at stake.”

Labour was contacted for comment.