[6] "From the day Kinnock became leader he made it clear that membership of the left wing Campaign Group of Labour MPs would be a bar to promotion within the PLP.

[7] Members of the Socialist Campaign Group also led a "direct action protest" in the House of Commons by refusing to sit down in order to force a debate on the strike.

[7] Socialist Campaign Group MPs made up a significant number of these including Tony Benn, who gave his full support to the campaign and spoke at the 200,000 strong anti-Poll Tax demonstration in Trafalgar Square,[9] and Jeremy Corbyn who appeared at Highbury Magistrates' Court in 1991 for not paying his poll tax bill of £481.

"[14] Labour Party historian Alex Nunns described how "Left-wing hopefuls, like Christine Shawcroft or Mark Seddon, were stopped at all costs.

[15] Alan Simpson, a member of the Campaign Group during the New Labour years, described it as "the only bolt-hole of real political thought that I found throughout my parliamentary years ... they were the MPs you would always find on picket lines, at trade union and social movement rallies, on anti-war marches and at the forefront of campaigns to restore rather than exploit the planet.

"[16] Under Blair, the Labour government introduced plans to cut lone parent benefit, a measure which members of the Campaign Group believed would disproportionately harm women.

Blair ally Patricia Hewitt was alleged to have described the rebellion as a "conspiracy organised by the Socialist Campaign Group"[18] 47 Labour MPs voted against the proposals including Campaign Group members Ken Livingstone, Ronnie Campbell, Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, Ann Cryer, Alan Simpson, John McDonnell, Dennis Skinner, Audrey Wise, and Diane Abbott.

[20] Socialist Campaign Group MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Tam Dalyell, along with Tony Benn, (who had been in the Socialist Campaign Group until he stood down as an MP at the 2001 General Election) were among the most high profile of the initial sponsors of the Stop the War Coalition at the meeting on 21 September 2001, along with figures such as Tariq Ali, Harold Pinter, Andrew Murray and Lindsey German, who became the convenor of Stop the War.

[21] The Coalition organised what is widely thought to be the largest demonstration in British history, when on 15 February 2003, over a million people marched against the Iraq War.

[20][22] Campaign Group MP Alan Simpson launched Labour Against The War to coordinate parliamentary opposition to Tony Blair's decision to follow George W. Bush in invading Iraq.

These schools would, like academies, determine their own curriculum and ethos, appoint the governing body, control their own assets, employ their own staff and set their own admissions policy.

John McDonnell, then Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, argued "Our sincere hope is that the prime minister desists from relying upon a [David] Cameron coalition to force his education policies through in the face of this overwhelming opposition within the parliamentary Labour party.

"[24] With Tory support, the reforms were eventually passed by 422 to 98 votes; however, this was the largest rebellion a Labour government had ever suffered at the third reading of a Bill.

In October 2020, the Socialist Campaign Group produced a pamphlet called "Winning the Future", which proposed solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[33] Following this defeat Kinnock introduced a Policy Review, which many on the left thought would lead to an abandonment of the party's commitment to Clause IV, public ownership and the transformation of society.

[35] The decision to run led to a number of MPs leaving the Campaign Group including Clare Short, Margaret Beckett, Jo Richardson and Joan Ruddock.

[34] The scale of this defeat was a surprise to Benn, in particular the decline in support from CLPs since the 1983 election, and strengthened Kinnock's position, which he used to take the party further towards centrism.

[34] Neil Kinnock resigned just three days after he lost his second general election, and tried to persuade candidates other than John Smith to stand aside so as to avoid a contest.

[37] Rules introduced following Tony Benn's 1988 leadership challenge meant that candidates would have to secure nominations from 55 MPs to make it onto the ballot paper.

As the deadline for nominations approached it started to look as though all other candidates would be excluded – not only Livingstone and Grant but also Ann Clwyd, Bryan Gould and John Prescott.

[48] It has been suggested that this practice of lending nominations to left candidate to widen the scope of debate "set a precedent" for Jeremy Corbyn's run for Leadership in 2015.

[51] The 2015 leadership election was the first held under new rules introduced by Ed Miliband following the Collins Review which recommended moving to a one-member one vote (OMOV) system.

[53][54] At a meeting of the Socialist Campaign Group on 3 June it was decided that, with McDonnell and Abbott both ruling themselves out after having stood previously, Jeremy Corbyn should be the left's candidate for leader.

[60][61] When the result of the referendum was announced Corbyn's opponents on the right and centre of the Parliamentary Labour Party sought to trigger a leadership election on the grounds that they did not think he had campaigned sufficiently vigorously for Remain.

Corbyn's opponents in the National Executive Committee were alleged by Robert Peston to have sought to fix the results,[66] by increasing the fee for becoming a registered supporter from £3 to £25 and excluding from voting the 130,000 new members who had joined in the previous 6 months.

[72] The document outlines a socialist, internationalist, and democratic agenda and starts by listing the rights that members thought out to be fought for: "WE BELIEVE: That there should be certain rights which must be won and maintained: We need a campaign for peace and disarmament in Europe, and for an end to the arms trade throughout the world and for a new international economic order which will start to reverse the transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest.

The paper published articles by Campaign Group MPs alongside left wing Labour Party activists and trade unionists.

[76] A website of the same name, providing electronic versions of some of the articles in the printed edition and lists of Campaign Group MPs, was run from 1999[77] to 2010.