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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well now, there are reports this morning that the Shadow Cabinet is bracing itself for a reshuffle after a number of Labour’s front benches voted in favour of air strikes in Syria.  Despite winning the Oldham by-election it’s been a challenging week for the party and calls for unity have come hand in hand, for some, with a barrage of online abuse.  I am joined now by one of Momentum’s organisers, Adam Klug.   Very good to see you Mr Klug, tell me first of all, a lot of people might not know what Momentum is, are you a party within a party?  

ADAM KLUG: Hi, thank you.  No, Momentum is trying to build a grassroots social movement to channel the energy and enthusiasm over the summer with the election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader and try and harness that into building something positive, progressive and inclusive where voices outside of Westminster are heard and people can organise on issues which affect them in their local areas.  

DM: You are all Labour party members and only Labour party members.   

ADAM KLUG: Everybody who has a position within Momentum is a Labour party member and …  

DM: Only a Labour party member?  

ADAM KLUG: You cannot be a member of another political party, yes, absolutely cannot and also at meetings, the governance structure is still being established to be completely clear with all the terminology but absolutely no members of other political parties are welcome at Momentum meetings.  If you are not a member a member of a political party and you are a member of the Labour party, your voice is welcomed and heard but the Socialist party for example are not welcome to be at Momentum meetings.    

DM: Or the Communist Party of Great Britain?  

ADAM KLUG: Exactly, no.    

DM: Well you know the charge, you must have heard it often by now, that you are in some way, shape or form, how should I term it, the online Pretorian Guard of Jeremy Corbyn, that you are there to police, protect and punish those that disagree with your views.  

ADAM KLUG: I think that is a misunderstanding of what Momentum are doing and I think if you meet anyone who has been involved in Momentum or go to any Momentum events, there is a positive inclusive atmosphere whereby people are having their voice heard and for example on the Syria situation, Momentum provided a tool whereby supporters could lobby their MPs on the issue if they felt inclined to do so and over 30,000 people did so.  If a very small number of people behaved in a manner of trolling and so-called bullying and harassing, obviously I and Momentum would absolutely condemn that 100%.

DM: What would you do about it?  You mentioned that Syria vote and I was going to get onto that and you have a list don’t you, a list of 66 Labour MPs who voted in favour of a bombing campaign and I don't know if they are Momentum supporters or not but an awful lot of them, we had one of them Chris Bryant in, getting some really serious abuse.

ADAM KLUG: As I say, if people conducted themselves in a manner which isn’t in accordance with Jeremy Corbyn and his way of doing politics, I would not condone at all but overwhelmingly people just wanted to have their voice heard.  We live in a democracy whereby individual citizens, party members, constituents were lobbying their MPs to speak about their views on an issue which I think was deeply … I think it was a very ill thought through and divisive move to be going for air strikes in Syria, I think we should be focusing on diplomatic efforts, we should be looking at where ISIS get their arms, where they get their money, these are the issues we should be …  

DB: But the 66 MPs, you’d like to see them stay within the Labour party at the next election, you don’t want them deselected?   

ADAM KLUG: The role of Momentum is not to be campaigning on the selection or deselection of MPs, that is for constituency Labour parties so that’s not the purpose of Momentum.  Momentum is people coming together, organising on issues which affect them – we have already had Democracy SOS which was a campaign to raise the issue of individual electoral registration whereby nearly two million people will drop off the electoral register so there has been people going out in communities and having conversations with people about these changes which many people aren’t aware of, to ensure that their voices are heard and they don’t drop off the register.  Similarly we have been opposing George Osborne’s cuts to tax credits or the work penalty, as we are referring to it as.  

DM: So are the whole Labour party but I just need to ask you about the issue of the front bench, the Shadow Cabinet, would you Momentum not prefer it if Jeremy Corbyn had more people sitting there who agree with him?

ADAM KLUG: I don’t think it’s Momentum’s role to be making decisions about the make up of the Shadow Cabinet, that’s up to Jeremy Corby, the leader.  So that’s not an issue that …

DM: But people say he strengthened, after that showing in the Oldham by-election, that he could now say to some of those people sitting on the front bench, I don’t want you here anymore and the party wouldn’t go into revolt. Would you like to see that?

ADAM KLUG: What I’d like to see is what happened last Saturday in Oldham whereby Momentum helped mobilise 200 of its supporters to come up and campaign for the fantastic candidate Jim McMahon, who was very, very welcoming, him and his team were very welcoming of Momentum.  There were coaches that came from Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, London, Sheffield and there was a social in the evening where Jim McMahon spoke and said he was overwhelmed by the support from Momentum.  

DB: And it may well have had an effect on the scale of that result but you’re happy, let’s just be explicit about this, you’re happy with Maria Eagle staying in the Shadow Cabinet, with Hilary Benn remaining there?  

ADAM KLUG: It’s really not my role, as I said, to be talking about the make-up of the Shadow Cabinet.  

DM: But you directly oppose their policy when it comes to things like air strikes.  

ADAM KLUG: As I say, I personally did oppose that policy, that vote has now gone through, I am very, very disappointed about the outcome of it but I think on that vote Jeremy Corbyn …

DM: But people like that, it’s a broad church, people like that should stay on the front bench representing the Labour party?

ADAM KLUG: As I said, it is not my call to make that comment but I think what that vote showed on Syria is that actually Jeremy Corbyn, the party is far more unified, united, as it sometimes is presented as in the media and Jeremy Corbyn I think had 75% of members who responded and said they were opposed to air strikes which was his position. I believe 66% of MPs backed his position and that wasn’t seen to be the case all along so I think he showed real leadership and similarly, the majority of the Shadow Cabinet also supported Jeremy’s position.  

DM: Okay Mr Klug, very good seeing you, Adam Klug there from Momentum.