The Corbynite tribes rule Labour, but how long can they coexist? | Martin Kettle

The leader is supreme but draws support from many strands of the left. His fate depends on how he handles the growing conflicts

For more than two years, ever since Jeremy Corbyn won the first of his two overwhelming Labour leadership victories, there has been a tendency, widely shared across the British political spectrum, to see “Corbynism” as one thing, a unified leftwing project. Yet Labour’s current internal debacle over the selection of its next general secretary, due for completion next week at a meeting of the party’s national executive committee, should explode that laziness.

True, it now seems certain that Jennie Formby, the candidate of the Unite union, will win an easy victory in the selection race as Labour’s top official, as she will be unchallenged by any of the major alternatives. True, this will be seen, rightly, as further consolidating Corbyn’s hold over the Labour party machine after the resignation of the previous general secretary, Iain McNicol of the GMB union, a Corbyn opponent.

Related: Labour’s power struggle goes further than just Momentum versus Unite | Owen Jones

Until now, Corbynism has been able to ignore many of the tensions between its centralising and its grassroots tendencies

Related: Though gravity is on Corbyn’s side, victory is far from certain | Rafael Behr

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