Jess Barnard, Gemma Bolton and Yasmine Dar report on Labour’s National Executive Committee Away Day.
We began the meeting with obituaries to lately departed Labour figures, including John Prescott who did so much to champion the working class and understood the need for Labour to stay true to its roots, as well as David Hill, Professor Richard Pring and Lyndon Harrison (former MEP).
General election review
Holly Ridley, the new General Secretary, led a discussion about the General Election results and Labour’s campaigning in the runup to county council elections in May and local elections in 2026.
The staff presentation emphasised the ‘efficiency’ of Labour’s vote, which allowed Labour to win so many seats, also arguing that it was in large part tactical voting which cost us a higher overall percentage vote share during the campaign. While there was a recognition that Labour has also lost support among some core groups, particularly Muslim voters in seats such as Batley and Blackburn, there was little reflection about why this has been the case. Jess Barnard challenged the Party leadership on the ongoing support for Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza, and the framing of peaceful protests as hate marchers. She asked if any lessons have been learned from this, as well as calling for the government to challenge racist myths about migration head-on.
The Labour Party has also identified 4% of voters who would vote Labour but may face barriers to voting. We raised the issue of voter registration and the need to repeal Tory legislation which has made it so difficult for many of these voters.
BAME Labour
A staffer presented a paper advocating for the Party to intervene in the Socialist Society BAME Labour to render it a functional organisation. Yasmine Dar challenged the paper on the basis of it being contrary to what BAME Party members have been demanding for years. Not only is this proposal completely unconstitutional, bypassing the requirements on the Party to establish a section which all BAME Party memberscan join free of charge, proper consultation with BAME stakeholders had not been carried out.
Under 12a of the rulebook, Labour members who self-identify as BAME are automatically be part of the Party’s BAME structures.When we asked for clarification, we were told this paper only dealt with “BAME Labour” in terms of the Socialist Society and as such we would not be voting against provisions made in the rulebook. However, since there is no BAME structure within the Party running, as is provided for in the rulebook, the question remains why Party resources and finances are going to breathe life back into a defunct socialist society with a charge for joining and not into setting up these structures which all BAME party members could engage with.
As left CLP reps we argued for BAME Party members to be able to self-organise without paying an additional charge, as is outlined in the rulebook, and we voted against the paper for this reason. The paper passed.
A panel of NEC members was established to oversee this work. NEC members were asked for self-nominations. Two men and one woman put themselves forward for the positions. Left NEC members proposed the number of seats be expanded to three, to ensure that all three people who wanted to be on the panel could be, but the chair rejected this solution. Given that only two would be allowed, we called for one position to be reserved for a woman and the second position open, as is best practice across the Party. This was also rejected. The two men were elected onto the committee, therefore Yasmine, the only woman of colour to put herself forward, was blocked from participating in this panel in what was a clearly factional and pointless decision.
Socialist Societies
A paper proposing to increase NEC oversight over Socialist Societies was discussed. Our main concern with that is there has been a lack of proper consultation. We called for adequate consultation and agreed to follow this up with the Socialist Societies’ representatives.
Annual Women’s Conference
A paper was presented on Annual Women’s Conference proposing once again to hold it as a one-day event the day before Annual Conference. This would greatly limit women’s participation and ability to have a say in Party policy.
A suggestion was made that Women’s Conference should be less ‘argumentative’. While we would not in any way condone unacceptable behaviour, we would make the point that women are capable of robust but respectful debate.
We’ve heard from delegates that many people felt frustrated by the lack of time and opportunity for grassroots women to have their voices heard. A two-day Conference would also help to remedy this.
Jess Barnard made the point that this is about investment in our women members and tackling barriers to engagement. Many women find it much harder to come to an even longer national Conference because it means finding childcare for an even more extended amount of time. While politically it’s a time when misogynists and the far right are becoming increasingly emboldened, it’s more important than ever that we put our full support behind gender equality and tackling the issues women face.
Gemma Bolton also raised the point that the decision not to hold a standalone Women’s conference as previously planned also means that motions from Welsh and Scottish conferences must wait even longer to be heard, and with over a six month wait, motions can easily become outdated.
We challenged the statement that the Party does not and would not be able to raise revenue to self-fund the Women’s Conference. We were told at length in previous months about the record-breaking millions of pounds being brought in through organisations and companies hiring out stall space at national Conference. There is no reason this could not also be done for the Women’s Conference. Not to mention it would be a great opportunity for press coverage ahead of the upcoming local elections and a chance to platform and build the profile of new women MPs, mayors and local representatives.
Our calls to defer the paper and look at viable options for a standalone Conference were not taken on board and therefore we were unable to support the paper as it stands, as it would disenfranchise and limit the voice of women in our Party.
Supporting regional mayors
A paper on accountability of regional mayors was tabled. This paper raises serious concerns about the autonomy and accountability of regional mayors. While we agree mayors should be accountable to the regional membership of the Party, we are not in support of control shifting away from members into the hands of small groups of decision-makers.
The paper also implements a proposal for Labour groups to have nomination rights in the selection process of mayors – we felt this was unnecessary given councillors already have a vote as members, and risks taking influence away from members of the Party and trade union affiliates. We also emphasised potential downsides to the Party seeking to rein in popular regional mayors especially in the context of the Party losing support after the election.
Elections onto committees
There were elections onto committees, including the National Policy Forum policy commission co-convenors. We noted disappointingly that no CLP representatives were elected to these roles, creating a lack of member representation in these key commissions.
A proposal was also put forward to reduce the size of the Audit and Risk Committee down from seven members to five. When we asked why, we were told “We aren’t sure, perhaps because we struggle to fill all seven positions.”
Left members volunteered to take up the positions to solve this problem, but the NEC refused to accept this and voted through the proposal to reduce the size of the committee, in yet another pointless factional move which harms the efficiency of the organisation.
Despite this, Jess Barnard was successfully elected as one of the five members onto the Risk and Audit Committee.
Aims and objectives for 2024/25
Aims and Objectives were agreed for the next year of NEC activity.
Key updates for membership engagement
Staff reported that the current Party membership is now 338,570 and that there was a spike in new people joining the Party as soon as the Chancellor finished delivering her budget speech, but the real headline out of this section was the long overdue acknowledgement that the Party must do more and change strategy in order to retain, engage and inspire members.
The Party is proposing some member engagement actions to remedy this including:
- Changes to the website to make it easier for members who are entitled to reduced membership payment rates to find them.
- Relaunching the member action report, and rolling out model email scripts and phone scripts for local parties to contact members and keep them updated on key issues throughout the year.
- Holding regular new members’ virtual meetings to induct new members, provide jargon-busters and provide information to members about opportunities open to them.
- Engagement plans to encourage people to get involved in campaigning ahead of the local elections, and training sessions to encourage new Labour campaigners to take on leadership roles.
These are all welcome decisions; however it follows five years of left NEC reps repeatedly raising the need to engage, support and respect our members. If we want to retain an active and empowered membership for the future, we must respect their democratic membership rights, reflect their policy positions and tackle a culture of hostility towards grassroots and predominantly socialist members.
We also welcome the news that next year there will be a Labour students and Young Labour congress in Wales, but this again is long overdue after years of Young Labour being sidelined and refused support. We have also enquired about the funding making this available, and whether the same could not be done to enable the Party to hold a Women’s Conference. We have not had a response to this.