Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell launched the Lambeth branch of People’s Momentum at a packed Lambeth Academy in Clapham on Thursday evening.

This was an event to build upon the success of Jeremy Corbyn’s election victory, and to continue the enthusiasm for a new kind of politics on the ground in Lambeth.

It was quite a statement of intent for the Shadow Chancellor to speak in Lambeth - “the viper’s nest for Progress,” as one member of the panel had put it earlier in the evening. All three Constituency Labour parties backed the Blairite Liz Kendall ahead of the crushing Corbyn victory.

There was a delay entering the Academy with many Momentum supporters wanting to sign a petition criticising Streatham MP Chuka Umunna for backing the bombing campaign in Syria. Inside the hall and the Momentum supporters were a healthy mix of old and new; former Lambeth Council Leader Ted Knight mixed with young students from the college - their passion for politics ignited by the Corbyn campaign.

Local speakers addressed the floor and answered questions ahead of the main speech from McDonnell. Ruth Cashman, the Branch Secretary of Lambeth Unison spoke about the local fightback against the BONKERS book-ish gyms that the Progress led Lambeth Labour Cabinet is pushing through:

“It is incredibly sad that we are having to fight a Labour Council. They have made a choice to pass on Tory cuts. We are told that they have to act responsibly. It is not responsible to sell off libraries. It is cowardly and disloyal to the people who voted you in.”

Cashman also made reference to the recent High Court ruling that found Lambeth Council acted unlawfully when consulting with residents at Cressingham Gardens:

“You tell us that as a Council you can’t break the law. We have learnt that under the right circumstances you can break the law.”

Cashman then called for Momentum supporters to attend ward meetings, and to push for motions that support Momentum values.

Marlene Ellis from the Streatham Labour party then spoke about Progress - the right wing party within in a party that currently controls Lambeth Labour:

“A number of our Cllr’s are members of Progress. There is a conflict of interest in serving Progress, and serving Lambeth residents. Progress is a private company that is limited by guarantee. It has a turnover of just under half a million pounds.

Our Labour Council is serving two masters - Progress with its corporate sponsorship, and the electorate with the other. We need to shape our community in our image, and not the image of Progress.”

This then set the scene for McDonnell to address the meeting, and explain what his vision was for Momentum within Lambeth. It was a difficult balancing act by the Shadow Chancellor: local people in Lambeth are fed up by the careerist Progress policies of Lambeth Labour; McDonnell however was at Lambeth Academy to promote Corbyn’s new kind of politics, and not open old divisions. The two aims are not necessarily exclusive…

McDonnell gave a large part of his speech over to the “disgrace” of the Syria vote in Parliament the night before:

“Parliament came to a collective, emotional response last night - it came came to the wrong conclusion. Sometimes the greatest oratory leads us to the greatest mistakes.”

An entertaining recap of the summer months that led to Jeremy Corbyn becoming the Leader of the Labour party then followed. McDonnell explained how issues such as housing and education had led many young people to understand that career politicians are not the answer.

The media also came under heavy attack from the Shadow Chancellor:

“Don’t think that there is a liberal media in this country. The Guardian had a battle between the left and the right; the right dominated.”

McDonnell set out his ambitions for Momentum, with the aim of delivering a membership of a million people for the Labour party:

“We are becoming a mass party once again - a social movement. We are trying to mobilise the whole of the Labour party. We need to mobilise with resistance - we need to focus on the government.”

This was a message that went down well at Lambeth Academy, although there was a sense that many of the Momentum supporters wanted to hear a little more about the local situation. There was little guidance from McDonnell on how local people should react to a right wing local Labour party that is happy to carry out the Conservative cuts and to carry out estate regeneration programmes in the borough.

McDonnell answered questions from the floor, leaving a message of:

“Courage, determination and solidarity.”

It will be interesting to see over the coming months how this will be interpreted in Lambeth.

Ruth Cashman summed up the mood for the Lambeth Momentum movement at the close:

“The Labour Council is fighting against us. We can’t tell people that Labour is the way to kick out the Tories when we have a local party here in Lambeth that is mocking us.”