This year's Labour Party conference could be cancelled due to an ongoing dispute between a union and the security firm hired for the event, it has been claimed.
With less than a month to go until the Liverpool event, GMB, the third largest union affiliated to Labour, said the refusal by security company Showsec to sign a union agreement or recognise GMB could lead to the event being "scuppered".
The union has said it is "intolerable" for Labour to work with a service provider that continually refuses to recognise trade unions and has demanded the party find an alternative company. Labour last year terminated its contract with G4S, reputedly over claims it was linked to Israeli prisons holding Palestinian political prisoners.
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"If Showsec continues to show such disregard for unions then it has proven itself totally unsuited to the task of providing security for this event," said GMB.
Showsec said it was "not anti-unions in any way", but the company was not in a position to sign a mandatory recognition agreement with the GMB"due to corporate governance guidance".
Labour has so far refused to comment on the dispute but "rejected newspaper claims the Home Office could shut down the four-day event if the party fails to sort out its own security", says the BBC.
However, the issue looks set to be overshadowed after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn endorsed a "rival" conference organised by the hard-left activist group Momentum.
The free four-day festival, which is being held less than a mile from the main conference, has been described as "poisonous and inflammatory" by senior party sources and risks deepening the splits within Labour at a time when it should be coming together after a bitter leadership election, says the Daily Telegraph.
"Setting up their own conference at the same time as Labour's demonstrates they are repeating the 'party within a party' model of Militant," said Labour MP Tom Blenkinsop.
Momentum, a pro-Corbyn group not affiliated with the Labour Party, has denied it is running a rival conference and said its festival will run concurrently with the main event.
There has also been criticism that Corbyn will appear at the Momentum event alongside Marxist writer Richard Seymour who is alleged to have written of an Israeli journalist: "F*** him, they should cut his throat". He is also said to have criticised Falklands veteran Simon Weston and attacked the Green Party for being "too nice", reports Guido Fawkes.
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