"Tonight on Panorama - the battle for the soul of the Labour Party." "The leader, Jeremy Corbyn, adored by his supporters." "It's not about an individual, it's about what we collectively as a society want to do and want to achieve." "But challenged by his own MPs." "The reason I'm standing is I want the Labour Party to survive." "We've been on the frontline of Labour's Civil War." "The battle for the soul of the Labour" "Party is going to be fought out in the streets of Brighton Hove." "I think we are standing absolutely at the edge of a cliff." "It might well be that one or other of the factions or both of us end up going over it." "The fight is turning nasty." "There has been abuse." "There has been bullying." "There have been threats." "It's real." "It's happened to me." "Homophobic, sexist, anti-Semitic, that's nonsense." "Can the party unite or is this the end for Labour?" "Unless things change radically and rapidly, it's very doubtful that I'll see another" "Labour Government in my lifetime." "Welcome to Brighton, the seaside town with an alternative street." "Summer by the sea and it's holiday weather." "But here inside Labour's biggest local party, the feuding between left and right has grown bitter." "The struggle revolves around" "Jeremy Corbyn." "CHEERING" "The Labour leader's in town for a leadership campaign rally and so are more than a thousand of his supporters." "I think Jeremy Corbyn is perhaps Britain's greatest hope for a genuinely new type of politics." "Many of the volunteers here are Momentum members, the grass-roots group fiercely loyal to Corbyn." "We are ordinary people who are enthused and who have become active because we've got real hope now." "This is a politics of hope." "Labour's opinion poll ratings look dismal and he's fighting to stay on as leader." "But he's still smiling, counting on" "Labour's members, whose votes will decide this election." "Jeremy is a breath of fresh air." "He's actually speaking some sense which is really speaking to the people." "United we're very strong." "United as a party we go forward to create that decent, better society." "Jeremy Corbyn is good at packing out the crowds." "They believe in him and many are drawn to his left-wing policies, anti-Trident, anti-tuition fees and renationalising the railways." "Great job." "I know why I got the job." "Zblt" "Corbyn phenomenon is about timing." "Labour's traditional, working-class support has been ebbing away for years." "Jeremy Corbyn has built a new base and made it all his own." "After all those New Labour compromises and one election defeat too many, they wanted something different." "Jeremy" "Corbyn may have been around for decades, but he's certainly something different." "Trouble is most Labour MPs believe he's a hopeless leader and they are out to stop him." "Meet the challenger, Corbyn's enemy's are pinning their hopes on him." "Hello there." "Owen Smith calling from the Labour Party..." "I think you're better than him." "I'm apparently better than the rest, that will do." "He was one of more than 170 Labour MPs who declared they had no confidence in Jeremy" "Corbyn this summer." "And today, he's come to Brighton too, campaigning for a council by-election." "I fear that the Labour Party is in danger of an historic split." "I think this is a battle for the soul of the" "Labour Party." "The reason I'm standing is I want the Labour Party to survive." "You're not voting for him?" "No." "Oh, well, never mind." "He's won the overwhelming backing of his fellow MPs, who believe Jeremy" "Corbyn is far too left-wing, unelectable." "Beware of the dog, they're always my favourite." "We've got to take seriously the fact that the public are moving away from us and that on a whole host of areas for a very long time, on the economy, on immigration, on Social" "Security we are losing the argument with the public." "We have to do much better at going out and making the case to the public for why they should support us." "And we haven't done that." "But those close to Corbyn argue Labour's growing membership tells a different story." "Large numbers of people feel the economy and society is not delivering for them." "So they're looking for an alternative." "The Labour Party provides that alternative." "That's why they're joining us." "We're the biggest political party in Europe now." "We're now over half a million, nearly 600,000, I think growing all the time." "I welcome that." "Whoever wins Labour's leadership contest, they're going to have to try to heal the wounds of a brutal few months." "Near Brighton, the fight has been particularly dirty." "No-one knows that better than local Labour MP," "Peter Kyle, a former aide worker and advisor to the Blair Government." "He won the seat from the Tories in the 2015 election, one of the few bright spots in a dismal Labour performance." "We only have one MP in the south-east beneath London now, that's me." "I went through the whole pile." "Unfortunately there's a new pile." "Peter and his team have an unexpected problem, the local party membership has doubled to 6,000 in just over a year." "It's now the biggest in the country and some of those new recruits are out to get him." "There's suddenly just this anger, this visceral anger, which is unchannelled and it's unproductive." "I'm pushed away from huge sections of the new membership." "Democracy is being shut down." "Things are so reductionist either you're a" "Corbynite or you're an enemy." "That's not the party that I know and love." "Things came to a head last December, when Peter Kyle voted in favour of air strikes on Syria in a free vote." "In the days that followed, he received abusive and threatening messages." "What I saw during the" "Syria debate was something that was a shock for me." "Within the party there was an almost uncontrollable rage within one bit of it, which was being uncited, by people around the leader, within Momentum, people with axes to grind." "Drop into any party meeting in this constituency and" "Labour's divisions are loud and clear." "And they're heart felt." "But it strikes me that Jeremy Corbyn's followers are keener on fighting via the social media and I dipped into the Labour Party forum for a week." "I'm made of strong stuff, but these deeply horrible misogynyst, anti-Semitic, homophobic, vitriolic, thick and just mean people sent me away." "I couldn't stand it." "It was messing with my head." "There is a slight bit of prejudgment on new members." "You automatically assume just because we're coming in and supporting Corbyn, we're Trots or stormtroopers or whatever." "We're actually not." "What's happening here is a vivid example of what's happening in local Labour Parties up and down the country, MPs pitted against local members, members against each other and the atmosphere's become increasingly poisonous." "There has been abuse." "There has been bullying." "There have been threats." "It's real." "It's happened to me." "It's happened to many of my colleagues." "Most party members are thoroughly decent, kind people but there are a small minority who are absolutely determined to silence any alternative voices, any debate, any criticism and the party simply can't survive that." "The real worry for me is that it's being used to create an image that the Labour Party is some kind of cesspit, homophobic, sexist, anti-Semitic, this is nonsense." "I'm offended that my party is being accused of that in this way." "It's all done to try and shift the blame on Jeremy Corbyn." "Back in Brighton" "Hove, the battle for control of Labour has intensified." "At July's annual general meeting, a group of Corbyn supporters, backed by" "Momentum, were elected to key posts." "But then, amid hotly contested allegations of bullying, intimidation and vote rigging, the local party was suspended and is now being investigated." "Greg Hadfield was elected local party secretary that night before the vote was annulled." "A former Daily Mail journalist, he's now one of" "Brighton's most devoted Jeremy Corbyn supporters." "I think I'm a" "Nescafe socialist." "Even though to some he might look a bit like a" "Conservative." "You're not that Tory (BLEEP), are you?" "No I'm the secretary of the Labour Party, who was suspended." "I got 66% of socialist vote and then I got suspended." "I thought you were that" "Tory bloke." "Because I'm wearing a jacket." "He's off to rally the troops at a meeting organised by Momentum and to turn his fire on the MPs who rebelled against their leader." "We're going to say to Jeremy Corbyn, look behind you, you've got 600,000 members supporting you." "Don't look over your shoaleder to see 176 people trying to stab you in the back because when he wins in September, we'll be there for him and we'll be there for the Labour Party." "APPLAUSE We're now approaching end game, the hidden fractures between the leadership, between MPs, between the members, this is where it's decided." "The battle for the soul of the" "Labour Party will be fought out in the streets of Brighton Hove." "I'm determined as a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, we're going to win, because this cannot go on." "In the background to this struggle, are two rival visions - those MPs who mostly believe change should be driven through Parliament and on the other side, those left-wingers who want to build, instead, a mass movement way beyond Westminster." "Some in Labour see fighting for change outside Parliament as undemocratic, but there's also fear of entryists inside the party, members of far-left groups who've deliberately infiltrated Labour." "That's banned under party rules." "Brighton is central to these allegations." "Ivor used to be an MP here, was a minister in Tony Blair's" "Government." "He's now gathering evidence and attended the July AGM." "What we are seeing is clear entryism." "We have seen this." "We have evidence that people who stood for election on July 9 are members of other organisations, which are prescribed by the Labour Party and have been prescribed since the 1990s." "That is completely and utterly unacceptable." "These people have hidden it in order to try and gain entryism into the Labour Party and I'm afraid, they have to be got out." "Kept out of the party?" "Yes." "Two of those accused of being entryists were elected to the local party's executive committee alongside Greg." "The party is still suspended, so meet the Brighton, Hove and District" "Executive Committee in exile, as they like to call themselves." "This one, I stand with Jeremy Corbyn." "It's the basic message." "Brilliant." "Yeah." "There's stickers as well." "These are the Corbyn for Prime" "Minister, Corbyn for leader, love socialism sticker." "We completely ran out of the national Jeremy Corbyn badges, but we've made more local ones." "Phil Clarke stood against Labour five times, including the 2015 Council elections." "That's banned under Labour's rules." "I've been in the social party and stood for trade union and socialist coalition." "I did that because I felt that the Labour Party wouldn't again be a voice for working people and the trade unions." "I'm not an entryist." "I made a personal decision to join the Labour Party." "I'm in the a member of any prescribed group in the Labour Party." "I want to see a" "Labour Party that is what it was set up to be, which is the voice of working people through the trade unions in Parliament and that's why" "I'm a member." "Mark Sandell was elected chairman of the local party until it was suspended." "He's accused of being an entryist because of his support for the controversial far left group the alliance for workers liberty." "It's a socialist organisation, not a party." "It publishes a newspaper which, I think, is a very good newspaper, I support." "But is he a member of the AWL?" "We don't have a membership." "Is he a Trotskyite entryist?" "I don't see myself as an entryist." "The" "Labour Party is the place where my politics will be most effective, it's the place where my politics have a history." "The Labour Party were founded by great socialists who wanted to get rid of capitalism and change the world." "It was also founded bit trade unions, which I've always been a supporter of, where else would I take my politics?" "I don't think you should ban people because you don't like their ideas." "But Panorama understands that both men are under investigation by the national party." "They could be banned by Labour for breaching party rules." "So many party argue there is nothing to worry about." "The Alliance for" "Workers love the deep, they must be delighted that they keep getting mentioned." "There must be half a dozen of them in the whole country!" "You know the argument, we have seen many on the left, some from groups or other parties once opposed to Labour, coming aboard and joining behind Jeremy Corbyn, so the idea of entryism is not a myth, is it?" "The vast majority of people who are joining the Labour Party have got nothing to do with Trotskyism or entryism." "Of course, there will be handfuls of people who are old hands, who might be regarded as people who have got a different political agenda." "But for others, talk of entryism is like a grim echo of the past." "Back in the mid-19th 80s, the far left group Militant were a party within a party, and" "Neil Kinnock took them on and won." "I am telling you you cannot play politics with people's jobs and with people's services!" "So has the problem returned?" "The idea that there are 300,000 or more entryists is absurd." "There are people who have returned to the" "Labour Party who have the objective of securing the control of the movement by the ultraleft." "They are well organised, they are experienced, they are obsessive, and they probably exert a disproportionate amount of influence." "Early August, and it is Pride weekend." "A celebration of gay rights in Brighton." "Four MP Peter Kyle, today is a reminder of what Labour can achieve when it is in power." "Many of the freedoms that we are celebrating today there were actually granted by a Labour government, the equalisation of the age of consent, gays serving in the military, civil partnerships." "But it is divorced that springs to mind when talk turns to Labour's leadership babble." "What has genuinely taken me by surprise is that the figures are practically 50-50, or 60 for Jeremy, but it is genuinely much closer than I was expecting." "Owen Smith has got an exhaustive schedule of touring around, because we are well aware that he needs to raise his profile, he needs to let people know what he stands for, and you know, let's be" "honest, a lot of people are saying, who is Owen Smith?" "Momentum is also at Pride, busy signing people up to the Jeremy for Leader campaign." "This kind of street campaigning, harnessing people power, is what the" "Corbyn phenomenon is all about." "We are getting enormous amount of support for Corbyn, a lot of them are Labour members, a lot of them are not, but the membership process has just begun." "If Jeremy Corbyn does win the leadership election, some members of the local party are talking about deselecting Peter Kyle." "He would effectively be sacked as the Labour candidate before the next general election." "If you are an MP against nationalising the railways, against ending academy schools, if you are against taxing the rich, if you are politically against stopping the privatisation of the NHS and bringing it back into full public ownership, then why would you want" "to stand as a candidate for a party that supports those things?" "If he can convince the local members that he will stand for Labour and convince people that those ideas are ones he genuinely supports, then maybe." "I very much doubt he can do that." "Peter Kyle knows he faces a battle to hold his job." "I hope he comes and stands against me so that" "I can ask him what he has done for the Labour Party in the last 20 years, and I can say what I have done, and then we can put that to the vote." "But I think the party has probably split more radically than it was in the 1980s." "I think we are standing at the edge of a cliff, and it might well be that one or other of the factions, or both of us, and up going over it." "I think it is that serious." "Do you think this could be the end of the Labour Party?" "Of course, no party has a right to exist." "And it is not just Brighton." "Although Jeremy Corbyn denies he wants a purge of hostile MPs, one of his most powerful allies has a clear warning." "I believe some of the MPs have behaved absolutely despicably and disgracefully, and they have not shown any respect whatsoever to the leader." "They should be held to account." "So those vocal dissidents who do not show the respect to the leader that you describe, when it comes to the selection, you say they are asking for it." "Anybody who behaves in a way that is totally disrespectful, out with the culture of the Labour Party, basically they are asking to be held to account." "The trouble with all of this is that it destabilises the party, it means that we are fighting each other, it loosens the collective bonds that we have when we work together and incorporate at local level and deliver real results for people." "And it means that we are distracted from the real task, which is to unite, to move forward, to form not just an opposition but a government in waiting, and take that fight to the" "Tories." "Last weekend, and the Trades Union" "Congress rolls into Brighton." "While the unions plough through debate after debate about Brexit, workers per role writes, everyone is talking about the future of the party that the union set up to be there political voice, but they are united in agreeing that Labour is in a very" "bad place." "Have you ever seen Labour in this kind of condition in your life?" "I remember difficult days through the 1980s, people come through in the end because the ultimate lesson is only united parties win." "When you are divided, you lose, and I'm afraid that is the real lesson of politics that everybody has to learn at some point." "Most believe leadership challenger Owen Smith is going to lose." "He is here on the hunt for votes." "Getting towards the end, right, so it has been tough, did you ever think it was going to be as tough as it has turned out to be?" "I thought it was going to be exactly this tough right from the beginning, we were under no illusions how this was going to be, it was going to be an argument within the family, and those are always difficult." "You say you think you are going to win, you are the only person I have spoken to who thinks that." "I know what we're doing in terms of the phone calls we have been making, the contacts we have been making, and it shows it is evenly balanced, and I will keep on going right to the." "With the race almost over, Jeremy Corbyn looks like a winner, but can he win the election which matters the most?" "You must accept that, from where you stand now, you have got a mountain to climb to get anywhere near being a credible alternative government, you are not going to denied that, are you?" "Don't judge everything by opinion polls, think of a couple of factors." "The last general election, less than half of the young people who had registered to vote actually took part in the election." "In the poorest parts of the country, the turnout was the lowest." "The involvement of young people in political activity is far greater than it was a year ago." "So you are relying on people voting who have not voted in the past and who tend not to vote." "Is that pie in the sky?" "No pies in any sky!" "Do you accept that your party has to unite again or face political oblivion?" "We have to unite as a party, and actually by and large we are united as a party." "I say to the Parliamentary Labour Party, come together." "Since the Brexit vote, British politics has never been quite so volatile." "Or the country so divided." "Many year and for a stronger opposition to the Government." "And even Team Corbyn tell me, frankly, they need to improve." "Do you need to deliver a better performance in opposing the Government?" "We have all got to raise the level of our game and learn lessons." "I have had enough of politicians who think they are God's gift to politics, we have made mistakes like everybody else, we are willing to learn the lessons from our own PLP, particularly members who have been in this position." "A bit of tutoring from old hands." "Why not?" "Most expect Jeremy Corbyn will win, but if he does, even with tutoring, reuniting the party now looks as good as impossible." "Some MPs who resigned from his Shadow Cabinet have told me privately they are contemplating returning to the team, but they won't pledge loyalty to his leadership." "Hostility to Jeremy Corbyn runs deep." "Not just in my lifetime, but stretching back to the 1930s, by any examination, this is the greatest crisis that the Labour Party has faced." "You believe you may not see another Labour government in your lifetime, then?" "I am 74, and unless things change radically and rapidly, it is very doubtful that I will see another Labour government in my lifetime." "For all the dire warnings, Labour MPs I have spoken to do not believe" "Labour is about to split, but without reconnecting to the millions of voters who have turned their backs, Labour faces a dark future - slow decay, broken as a major force in British politics."