Don't know who's behind this, my guess is McCluskey.
"
Corbynites create policy group to resist Starmer
The group is run from the parliamentary office used by staff for MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle
SIMON DACK/ALAMY
Patrick Maguire, Red Box Reporter | Henry Dyer
Saturday October 17 2020, 12.01am, The Times
A group of Labour MPs have established their own policy research operation amid growing left-wing opposition to the leadership of Sir Keir Starmer.
In a break with colleagues from the mainstream of the party, several allies of Jeremy Corbyn are using parliamentary office expenses to fund the Socialist Parliamentary Research Group (SPRG).
The pooled research and writing service has inspired comparisons with the European Research Group that supported generations of Conservative Brexiteers in their guerrilla campaign to shift the Tory position on Europe and eventually brought about the ousting of Theresa May as prime minister.
Labour officials see the emergence as a sign of a renewed intent to resist Sir Keir’s policy platform by the increasingly rebellious MPs on the Corbynite left who have sought to stake out distinct positions of their own since losing control of the party in April.
One source described the group, which is run from the parliamentary office used by staff for Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a left-wing shadow minister who resigned after reports of tensions with Sir Keir’s team in July, as an attempt to establish a “party within a party”.
Most Labour MPs pay into the Parliamentary Research Service, which provides letters to constituents and fields research queries, from their office budgets. Its materials support Labour MPs in their parliamentary work and are thus not overtly party political, but are broadly in tune with the leadership’s priorities and policy positions.
However, analysis by The Times of returns from Ipsa, the Commons expenses authority, shows that a number of Corbynite MPs have instead begun claiming for services provided by the SPRG, which has no public presence beyond a website registered in February, six weeks before Sir Keir’s victory.
Those who have claimed for its research and writing include Diane Abbott, the former shadow home secretary, and Richard Burgon, the former shadow justice secretary and de facto leader of the Corbynite resistance.
Three leftwingers elected for the first time last year, including Mary Foy, the City of Durham MP, who was among seven frontbenchers to quit so they could defy Sir Keir’s whip to abstain on security legislation earlier this week, also submitted £5,000 claims to Ipsa for its services in April and May. Another, Mick Whitley, the MP for Birkenhead, claimed £4,167. All of the claimants were among the 34 MPs who joined the rebellion on the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill, legislation designed to permit MI5 agents to commit crimes.
SPRG sources insist the group is not a rival to established channels used by other Labour MPs, and the exact nature of the materials they provide to their subscribers is unclear.
News of its emergence, however, has nonetheless compounded concerns among Sir Keir’s supporters that their internal opponents are co-ordinating their opposition to a leadership determined to break with its predecessor.
The organising nexus of Labour’s hard left has traditionally been the 30-strong Socialist Campaign Group, a caucus established by Tony Benn. It was long derided as an irrelevance by mainstream Labour MPs but grew in strength under Mr Corbyn.
Although it is not known whether the SPRG is formally linked with the Campaign Group, its subscribers are exclusively drawn from its membership.
A spokesman for the SPRG said: “SPRG is not in conflict and/or competition with any other service that MPs may choose to subscribe to under Ipsa rules.” None of the MPs who claimed for the group’s services via Ipsa responded to requests for comment."
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/corb ... -d3phbn6f5
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