Early years (2015–2017) Momentum began a campaign known as Democracy SOS to address the
Conservative-Liberal Democratic government's change to an
Individual Electoral Registration system; the
Electoral Commission had recommended that the program be implemented a year later than it was. The commission believed, based on 2015 records, that eight million people were eligible to vote but were not registered. 1.9 million registered voters were also removed by the change. Momentum utilized their network to campaign in towns and on university campuses to encourage voter registration. In 2016, former Labour shadow chancellor
John McDonnell praised Momentum for their work in the
local elections that May. The organisation coordinated activists from Brighton and London to areas such as
Hastings,
Crawley and
Harlow; activists in the
North West were directed to
West Lancashire. Prior to the
2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum Momentum declared its support for the UK remaining in the European Union (EU). After the
2017 Stoke-on-Trent Central and
Copeland by-elections were called, Momentum mobilised its activist base to campaign for both. They introduced two technological applications: a phone-banking web application called Grassroots Now (used in Corbyn's 2015 and 2016 Labour-leadership election campaigns), and a carpooling web application to help out-of-town activists travel to campaign events.
Stoke-on-Trent Labour Party candidate Gareth Snell won, and Labour candidate Gillian Troughton lost to her Conservative opponent in the traditional Labour stronghold of Copeland.
2017 general election campaign and aftermath In the run-up to the
8 June 2017 general election, Momentum worked to mobilise voters and encourage volunteers to canvass on behalf of Labour. Their campaign strategy was to target marginal seats (rather than defend safe ones); Grayson Lookner, Jeremy Parkin and Kim McMurray. Momentum had an effective social-media presence, and a number of their low-budget videos went
viral. One example was "Daddy, do you hate me?", which was watched by 12.7 million
Facebook users (more than one in three of the UK's Facebook users). Membership in the organisation increased by 1,500 within four days of the general election, Momentum's Facebook page had 23.7 million views, and its videos were watched by 12.7 million users. The organisation spent less than £2,000 on Facebook advertisements. On polling day, 10,000 Momentum activists knocked on an estimated 1.2 million doors in the UK. Later that month, Conservative MP
Michael Gove said: "The Conservative Party can learn a lot from Momentum". In August, it was announced that the
Communication Workers Union would affiliate with Momentum after its executive committee voted unanimously to join the organisation.
John McTernan, a former critic of the Labour left and Corbyn, joined Momentum that summer. Adam Klug resigned as Momentum national co-ordinator that summer after the
snap general election, and national co-ordinator and co-founder Emma Rees resigned in October. Laura Parker, who resigned as Jeremy Corbyn's political secretary before the national conference, replaced Rees as national co-ordinator. The
Electoral Commission (EC) announced in March 2019 that Momentum had been fined £16,700 for multiple breaches of electoral law, including failing to accurately report donations during the general-election period. The fine for not submitting an accurate spending return was the largest imposed on a non-party campaign. Although the organisation was initially investigated by the EC for overspending, the commission found that this was not the case. Momentum national treasurer Puru Miah, a councilor in
Tower Hamlets, said that "we have put in place comprehensive systems so we can fully adhere to regulations". An April 2020 Momentum report analysed their performance in the 2017 and 2019 general elections, saying that constituencies such as
Broxtowe,
Hendon,
Morley and Outwood,
Southampton Itchen,
Pudsey,
Thurrock and
Harrow East could have been won with the enhanced ground support they had by 2019. The campaign motivated Duncan Smith to contact local Conservative associations to organise activists to conduct counter-campaigns. Because the Labour Party believed that another
snap general election was likely, the party conducted its selection procedure to have a slate of parliamentary candidates in place for the 96 marginal constituencies; Momentum backed several of those candidates. By January 2019, over half of Momentum's 67 selections had become candidates. Momentum wanted the Labour manifesto to propose a four-day work week and a
Green New Deal: mass state investment to
address climate change. Momentum-backed selections in the
2018 local elections included
Rokhsana Fiaz for
Mayor of Newham, who was elected with an increased majority. Momentum-supported councillor Joseph Ejiofor became leader of
Haringey London Borough Council after the elections in London. In February 2019, after the resignation of nine Labour members of parliament (eight becoming members of the
centrist Independent Group with former Conservatives), Momentum began to organise resources and activists to campaign for those seats, wanting public pressure from constituents to trigger
by-elections. The organisation raised £15,000 in the hours after the split to fund the campaign. Momentum organized 100 activists on 19 March in
Streatham (
Chuka Umunna's constituency), with Owen Jones,
Diane Abbott and
Ash Sarkar speaking to activists at a rally. In March 2019, Momentum began Bankrupt Climate Change: a protest campaign outside
Barclays banks by 40 local groups. The campaign's objective was to raise awareness of Barclays' investments in fossil-fuel companies; the bank is reportedly Europe's largest financier (and the world's sixth-largest) of such companies. During the
2019 local elections,
Jamie Driscoll was selected as Labour candidate for the inaugural
first North of Tyne mayoral election as a notable Momentum-backed choice. Driscoll won the election, with 56.1 per cent of the second-round vote.
Brighton and Hove City Council, where Momentum backed 12 Labour candidates, and
Sandwell Council were focal points for the organisation.
2019 general election campaign Following the announcement of the
12 December 2019 snap general election, Momentum called for a large mobilisation of Momentum and Labour members. The group increased their number of paid staff from 13 to 56 for the election campaign period. Within six days of this funding drive Momentum have raised £255,000 from 10,000 individual donations, averaging at £26 per donation which came close to beating the amount raised during the entirety of the 2017 General election campaign. Within 10 days, the group reached over £300,000 from 11,000 donations. Parker commented on these funds saying the organisation will be able to "scale up every aspect of our operation from the get-go, which will allow us to deliver a campaign like nothing this country has ever seen before.” Momentum created different tools and initiatives to help activists to organise. Prior to the campaign in September Momentum created a website "Univotes" to help students strategically plan which constituency is better for them to vote in; as students can register at both their home address and student address. The student vote been cited by Momentum as why Labour won in
Canterbury,
Warwick and Leamington,
Portsmouth South,
Newcastle-under-Lyme and
Lincoln in 2017. They created a website "mycampaignmap.com"- as a successor to the 'My Nearest Marginal' website used for the 2017 election- which helps activists to coordinate their efforts in areas they are most needed. and had over 170,000 unique visitors. and eventually rising to over 1,400 people getting involved, Momentum also created an online forum for the election, the Volunteer Slack, in which volunteers were able to assist with researching issues around the election, phonebanking, texting voters, or helping with video clips. The forum continued after the election and now exists as the "Momentum Community", with over 5,000 members as of August 2021. The group developed their campaign strategy with three principles in mind, according to Emma Rees: people power, the targeting of marginal seats, and the idea of getting everybody to step up. This was done by following a
decentralised model in which activists have both a clear understanding of the aims and taking on organisational roles. Momentum has created several opportunities for activists to get involved in other ways of promotion- these include “Let’s Go” teams who communicate on do phone banking using
WhatsApp, volunteers who watch through interviews of Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians to be used for videos The organising group controversially made a video for Twitter based on a
Coca-Cola Christmas advert that circulates every year. They were asked to cease and desist by the Coca-Cola company and the advertisement was taken down. By the end of the election, their videos had a combined viewing of 106 million, double that of the last election.
Labour leadership elections and socialist organising (2020–2024) Following their defeat in the 2019 general election, in which Labour lost 60 seats,
Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum national coordinator Laura Parker resigned. The election loss led Corbyn to call a
leadership election, coupled with the
deputy leadership election, with the results of both elections announced in April 2020. On 14 January 2020, Momentum ran a two-day online consultation with their members about endorsing
Rebecca Long-Bailey for leader and
Angela Rayner for deputy leader. The consultation's closed format was controversial. Momentum planned hundreds of phone-banking events to support Long-Bailey. Keir Starmer won the election in the first round (with Long-Bailey receiving 28 per cent of the vote), and Momentum failed to win any of the
National Executive Committee by-elections. Momentum congratulated Starmer on his victory, and positioned themselves to work with the new leadership for "transformational policies". In May 2020, Momentum founder Jon Lansman announced that he would step down as chairman the following month. Momentum focused more on grassroots campaigning, since Starmer's election. During the lockdown, it was believed that 220,000 private renters fell into arrears and an estimated 60,000 eviction notices were served. Momentum began encouraging their London members and supporters to join the London Renters' Union in May 2020, and the campaign was in full swing by September. In the run-up to the
2021 local elections, the
London Labour Party changed its selection process for
assembly members so party members select new candidates; four assembly members were not standing for re-election. This was believed to be an opportunity for Momentum, who gained influence in the regional party in the 2018 regional-conference elections to nominate candidates who would push
Sadiq Khan's election manifesto to the left. In the member selections, only one Momentum-backed constituency candidate was chosen and the top four London-wide candidates were all from Momentum's slate. Subsequently, only
Elly Baker and
Sakina Sheikh were elected at the election in May 2021. In March 2021, the organisation published their 2021–2024 strategy: "Socialist Organising in a New Era". Due to the expulsions of left-wing Labour Party members, Momentum provided legal support to those deemed unjust. Although the group would endorse several sitting Labour MPs to the left of the party in the 2024 election, only one new candidate endorsed by Momentum,
Connor Naismith, became a Labour MP. The organisation voted to continue to focus on organising with the Labour Party in March 2024, preventing members from other parties joining. Despite this, the group has continued to decline, with co-chair Hilary Schan quitting the Labour Party and Momentum in May 2024. Mish Rahman, former Momentum member of Labour's National Executive Committee, left the party to join the Green Party in April 2025. The decision of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is create a new socialist political party,
Your Party, and the rise in support for
Zack Polanski's "eco-socialist" vision for the
Green Party have both led to left wing organisers within Labour to leave. == Organising within the Labour Party ==