LEFT Labour activists should capitalise on the strong performance of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign by uniting into one powerful organisation, Labour executive member Martin Mayer said at the weekend.

Mr Mayer, a Unite activist who represents trade unions on Labour’s top body, made the call in a speech at the Red Star festival on Saturday.

He suggested that the likes of the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and the Labour Representation Committee should form a single Labour left group.

This would ensure gains made during Mr Corbyn’s campaign could not be wiped out if he loses out in the leadership vote on transfers, he said.

“Even if he fails to win and comes second, surely this will mean the left’s voice in the party can no longer be marginalised,” Mr Mayer told his audience at the London event.

“If Progress candidate Liz Kendall, flying the flag for a lurch back to a Blairite right-wing agenda, loses badly, as seems likely, will this not signify a massive defeat for New Labour and the beginning of the end of its stranglehold ideologically on our Labour Party?

“Whatever happens, the time is right to also consider consolidating the various disjointed left tendencies in Labour into one co-ordinated Labour left organisation to counter New Labour’s Progress.”

Mr Mayer also argued that Unite had laid the ground for Mr Corbyn’s rise, not least by helping to get 26 new working-class MPs selected and elected.

“Not only have we ensured the Parliamentary Labour Party has shifted to the left in this election, but it’s also true that, without them, Jeremy Corbyn would never have received enough nominations to get on the ballot paper at all,” he said.