A MEDIA attempt to embarrass Unite leader Len McCluskey over alleged involvement in a “hard-left plot” by Momentum was dismissed by the union yesterday.

The Observer newspaper claimed that a “secret recording” of Momentum founder Jon Lansman — actually speaking openly to a new branch of the left Labour grouping in Richmond — indicated that Unite would affiliate to the organisation if Mr McCluskey is re-elected as general secretary.

But Unite pointed out that affiliation was a matter for the union’s executive council, not the general secretary — though this didn’t stop fellow leadership hopeful Gerard Coyne gushing about “a secret hard-left plot by Len McCluskey to seize control of the Labour Party in perpetuity.”

In the recording, Mr Lansman says the left needs to organise better to ensure it can influence candidate selections and get a candidate on the ballot paper if Labour’s leader Jeremy Corbyn leaves the job — a position Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said amounted to “entryism.”