Founded in 1996 by Paul Richards, Liam Byrne and Derek Draper, the former aide to Peter Mandelson. Progress has received more than 122 times more funding than any other members' association within the Labour Party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_(organisation)

Progress was founded in 1996 to support the New Labour leadership of Tony Blair. It is seen as being on the right of the party. The British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association has given Progress £57,000. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut

GMB General Secretary Paul Kenny led calls at the 2012 Labour conference for Progress to be "Effectively outlawed as part of the Labour Party." In 2013, Len McCluskey claimed Progress was manipulating the selection procedures for Labour parliamentary candidates.

Until 2014 Progress stated it was "The New Labour pressure group which aims to promote a radical & progressive politics for the 21st century." From late 2014 Progress rebranded itself as "Labour's new mainstream, aiming to promote a radical & progressive politics". #LabourLeaks

In 2014 Progress was fined £6,000 by the Electoral Commission for accepting donations of £390,000 from Lord Sainsbury (made a Labour life peer by Tony Blair in 97) while he was not on a UK electoral register. During 2016 he donated £260,000. #LabourLeaks https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26170777

Baron Sainsbury’s giving £2.1 million to the Lib Dems in 2016 meant without doubt he has broken Labour’s rules. Chapter 2 clause I section 4 paragraph B calls for the automatic exclusion of any members who “Supports a political organisation other than an official Labour group”

Data from the Electoral Commission shows that between 2001 & August 2019, Progress received almost £4.7 million in donations. £3.5 million came from Lord Sainsbury. This level of funding has led to accusations that Progress is operating as a "Party Within a Party" #LabourLeaks

The rise of Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum in the Labour Party saw Progress and Labour First, while remaining distinct organisations with different traditions, carry out more joint activities, including joint endorsement of candidates in internal party elections. #LabourLeaks

Labour First described itself as “A network of Labour moderates fighting against Momentum and other Hard Left groups to keep Labour as a broad-based and electable party”. They included Tom Watson and Ian Austin. #LabourLeaks #StarmerOut
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/labour-moderate-group-backed-mps-12258527

The Canary;

“Labour First and the usual suspects across the Labour right are locked in a self-defeating war of attrition. The Labour right: a cluster of political Easter Island statues – their eyes forever fixed on an imaginary horizon, while the world burns around them.”

As Head of Policy and Government Relations for Pfizer, now ex MP Owen Smith was also directly involved in Pfizer’s £53,000 funding of Progress. Progress has actively pursued the agenda of PFI and privatisation of NHS services. #StarmerOut #LabourLeaks https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/07/entirely-fake-owen-smith/

In April 2020, immediately on the election of Keir Starmer as party leader, Labour First and Progress launched jointly a new umbrella organisation called ‘Labour to Win’, with goals including 'to bring about fundamental change in the party’s culture and organisation' #StarmerOut

Progress is chaired by Alison McGovern. Gloria De Piero & Peter Mandelson are also members. In 2014 its vice-chairs included Steve Reed, now Keir Starmer's Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and a director of Labour Together. https://insidecroydon.com/2021/02/20/mp-reed-is-all-together-in-electoral-commission-funds-probe/

Money doesn’t talk, it swears: the multi-millionaire who stopped Jeremy Corbyn. His favourite group is Progress, which has received £4.22million of his cash since 2004.

They are the power behind the group who plotted to oust Corbyn. 2016 #Labourleaks https://seagullnic.wordpress.com/2016/09/23/money-doesnt-talk-it-swears-the-multi-millionaire-who-tried-to-stop-jeremy-corbyn/

Donations of his Blairite contemporaries: Property developer David Garrard’s £1.6million; hedge fund manager Martin Taylor’s £1.3million; Coincidently Martin Taylor is also one of Keir Starmer's donors AND has also given the Labour Together group over £700,000. #StarmerOut