If Tom Watson's 'infiltrating Trotskyites' idea is taken seriously, MI5 could start tracking Momentum the way it did Militant

When the challenger Owen Smith declared that 'it’s not about the T-shirt you wear or the badge on your lapel; it’s about power,' he was booed. That tells us all we need to know about today’s Labour Party

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The Trotskyists are back – in the headlines, and in the Labour Party, according to Tom Watson, its deputy leader. Corbynistas weren’t so pleased to hear this, quickly accusing Watson of reviving “reds under the bed” Cold War conspiracies from the 1970s.

I can’t remember a time when a party leader and deputy were so openly at each other’s throats. Normally, such tensions are kept behind closed doors. Today, Labour’s gory civil war is fought in front of our eyes. We already have two Labour parties – the members’ one led by Corbyn and the one including the 80 per cent of Labour MPs who have declared they have no confidence in Corbyn. How are they going to say he is the right PM for the country at the next general election?

Conspiracy theories abound in both camps. Corbynistas are convinced that the attempted coup against their man was orchestrated by a communications company employing several Blairites. I don’t buy that one; what happened was a spontaneous eruption by MPs after the Brexit vote because Corbyn had run such a half-hearted campaign.

There is more substance to Watson’s allegations of entryism by far-left groups. Labour’s membership has doubled under Corbyn to more than 500,000 – a good thing when parties are out of fashion. I suspect the vast majority genuinely support Corbyn's Labour. But every party leader has an aura which attracts or repels certain people. Corbyn is a magnet for Trotskyist groups proscribed by Labour –including the Socialist Party, formerly the Militant Tendency, and the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, previously Socialist Organiser. They sense an opportunity, not least because Corbyn never wanted them kicked out in the first place and convened a “stop the witch-hunt” campaign in their defence in the 1980s.

In a four-page dossier sent to Corbyn, Watson provides evidence that members of these groups are helping Corbyn’s leadership campaign, organising against MPs critical of him and working closely at a local level with Momentum, Corbyn’s 100-strong support network, which insists it is open only to Labour members.

Another conspiracy theory came from Len McCluskey, leader of the pro-Corbyn Unite union. He claimed MI5 might be behind some of the abuse on social media aimed at Corbyn’s critics, to stir up trouble. At first, I thought he was in a fantasy land: surely, today’s spooks have more than enough to do in fighting terrorism.

However, McCluskey’s claim may be closer to the truth than it looks. Whitehall watchers believe that some in MI5 will be taking a close interest in Watson’s claims, given his seniority in the party. They might regard Momentum as the new Militant, a party within a party. The current wave of rail strikes may be a coincidence but might be seen by some spooks as evidence that the enemies of the state are gathering.

The official line is that the security services keep out of party politics. But the authorised history of MI5, The Defence of the Realm, by the Cambridge University professor Christopher Andrew, revealed how it monitored Militant’s infiltration of Labour in the 1970s. MI5 claimed to have identified 75 per cent of Militant’s membership by monitoring letters and telephone calls, eavesdropping, and through agent penetration. It listed 43 constituencies where Trotskyists were most active and nine where the Labour MP was most at risk.

Merlyn Rees, Labour’s Home Secretary, was given an extensive MI5 briefing on Communist and Trotskyist influence in the party, unions and industry. MI5 produced nine papers on the issue. All its agents learned from Militant’s “secret” first national council meeting was its target figure of 2,000 members and a policy statement saying “we must consciously aim to penetrate every constituency party in the country". Hardly surprising.

Indeed, the official history concluded that Communists and Trotskyists played little part in the 1978-79 “winter of discontent” that helped to bring down the Labour Government, and that MI5 had devoted too many resources to them. That view changed and “counter-subversion” became a priority when Margaret Thatcher had a real enemy in Arthur Scargill, the Marxist miners’ leader.

MI5’s remit, set by the Security Service Act 1989, includes protecting the state from “actions intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means". Corbyn may be the most left-wing leader in Labour’s history but there is no evidence he wants to undermine parliamentary democracy. Whitehall officials insist that MI5 would never cross a line by provoking trouble, as McCluskey claimed. But Corbyn’s tolerant attitude to the far-left outside Labour might interest the spooks, especially as Militant supporters expelled by Labour may soon try to rejoin. There is little space to the left of Labour so they would do worse in elections under their own colours.

Their chances of readmission will be boosted by this week’s elections to Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) which bolstered Corbyn’s position. The NEC decides such matters. But Corbyn has a dilemma. Whatever his inclusive instincts, it would be very odd if he welcomed into the Labour family people from organisations that have until now stood against his party.

Nor would it improve Labour’s image in the eyes of the voters it must win to have any chance of regaining power in the country. Judging by Thursday night’s leadership hustings, many pro-Corbyn members are not bothered about that. When the challenger Owen Smith declared that “it’s not about the T-shirt you wear or the badge on your lapel; it’s about power,” he was booed. That tells us all we need to know about today’s Labour Party.