A LABOUR movement that stands aside while Jeremy Corbyn is hounded out of the party he recently led stands “morally diminished,” Andrew Murray told a packed crowd at the Walkers of Whitehall bar on Tuesday night.

The trade union veteran was speaking at the official launch of his new book Is Socialism Possible in Britain? which seeks to draw lessons from the defeat of the Corbyn project.

The left’s failure to do more to oppose the vilification of a man who, “more or less against his will,” became the standard bearer for the socialist transformation of the country for five difficult years was shameful, Mr Murray said.

He also called for solidarity with other Labour figures targeted by the Keir Starmer leadership, with Poplar & Limehouse MP Apsana Begum gaining a standing ovation when he pointed out she was in the audience.

Former Unite leader Len McCluskey said he hoped Mr Corbyn would stand as an independent in Islington North since it was clear Labour were not going to let him stand for the seat he has held since 1983.

And he queried whether a Labour that was actively driving out — “not marginalising, but driving out” — the left could any longer be seen as a vehicle for working-class power, recalling the way Labour was founded by trade unionists who concluded the Liberals did not represent them in Parliament.

The launch was also addressed by Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Jon Trickett, who stressed the angry and militant mood among the working class and its potential to drive serious change despite the rightward lurch in Parliament.

The spotlight has been on Mr Corbyn’s status in the past week, with allies of Sir Keir briefing the Times and the Guardian that he cannot be allowed to stand and should be kicked out of the party altogether.

But members of Mr Corbyn’s constituency party told the Morning Star on Sunday that the continued denial of the whip despite his remaining a Labour Party member was an “egregious affront” to the constituents who elected him with a huge majority in 2019, and grime artist Stormzy also spoke out in an interview with Gary Younge in GQ, saying it was “scary” the way a man of Corbyn’s integrity had seen his reputation shredded by an unscrupulous political elite.

Asked how the left could regather its forces, Mr Murray said that Socialist Campaign Group MPs should meet with the leaders of left unions and Momentum as a first step towards agreeing a strategy.