In the litany of scaremongering stories about the British left, the “Trot plot” is an evergreen favorite. The Labour left, the line goes, is overrun with Trotskyists who are endlessly scheming. And so it was with the latest story about a “hard left plot to out MPs” — as the Times put it — which, it turned out, was a Facebook post from a local branch of Momentum, in South Tyneside, suggesting that fifty Labour MPs should “join the liberals.”

It was ill-advised, swiftly removed, and not representative of Labour policy. Nor was it a position taken by Momentum, the grassroots organization of supporters for party leader Jeremy Corbyn. One of the MPs mentioned by the original post was Luciana Berger, Labour’s MP for Liverpool Waverside. According to the Liverpool Echo, in a story that quickly spread across social media, Corbyn supporters had gained control of the local Labour group and demanded an apology from the MP, who had resigned from the shadow cabinet last year during the party’s leadership challenge. A response from the new constituency Labour party secretary made clear this one officer’s words were not shared by this new Labour executive, who looked forward to working with Berger.

At party level, two Corbyn-supporting MPs, shadow fire minister Chris Williamson and party chair Ian Lavery, suggested a review of the rules over reselection. In terms cast by the not-at-all melodramatic Telegraph as showing the Labour party to be “in chaos,” Lavery said: “You can’t be any more democratic than allowing the people in your constituency to pick who they want as their MP.” But shadow cabinet members Richard Burgon and Angela Rayner, also Corbyn allies, have since spoken more favorably about the party’s “broad church”; with Rayner urging for focus in the fight against “the real enemy”. Fostering a united Labour front against the Conservatives fits with the party’s permanent campaign mode, smoothing issues that could likely aggravate rifts.