Gemma Bolton’s Update from Labour’s NEC – 25th May 2021 (Key Items & Decisions)

Please find below a short update on the key decisions from today’s Labour Party NEC meeting, by NEC member and CLPD co-Chair Gemma Bolton. 

A full collective report on the meeting from the Grassroots Voice 5 (Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar, Nadia Jama, Laura Pidcock, Mish Rahman) will be circulated in due course. 

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Update from NEC Meeting – 25 May 2021

The full NEC met 25th May 2021 and below are some of the key items discussed and decisions made. A more detailed collective report from the Grassroots Five will be circulated shortly. 

Elections Update, Leader and Deputy’s Leader Report

We had an elections update following the disastrous Hartlepool by-election, and a report from the leader and deputy leader on their work since the last NEC. We discussed where Labour was successful and what we need to change to win a future General Election. Questions were asked on a range of issues: from Keir’s commitment to his Ten Pledges, community organising, our council defeats (asked by Laura Pidcock), Palestine (asked by Yasmine Dar), the Whip being restored to Jeremy Corbyn and more.

General Secretary’s Report

The General Secretary reported on a number of issues, including the Forde Inquiry on the #LabourLeaks document. There is currently an investigation from the Information Commissioners Office which Forde believes publishing his report would prejudice. We were assured that once the ICO investigation is finished, the Forde Inquiry will be published.  We will keep pushing on this until the Inquiry is published and will ask for the Forde Inquiry to be on the NEC agenda for every meeting until it is. I have sent a set of questions to the General Secretary regarding a letter sent to the Party by Forde. Members deserve justice. 

Online Meetings

The NEC agreed that meetings will remain online only until July 31st at the earliest. 

Annual Conference

Labour Party Annual Conference is still due to go ahead *in person* from 25th-29th September in Brighton, unless the pandemic forces it to be moved online or delayed. 

National Women’s Conference

National Women’s Conference will be held online from 25th-26th June. Standing Orders and a Code of Conduct for the conference were discussed at today’s NEC meeting. I worked with Trade Union colleagues to secure some amendments to the Standing Orders and and the Code of Conduct. I loved the last Labour Women’s Conference in Telford, so am really looking forward to this one despite it not taking place in person! 

Single Authority Mayors – Selection Processes

A paper on the selection of Single Authority Mayors (e.g. Liverpool, Lewisham, Newham) was discussed. The paper proposed that where there was a sitting Labour Mayor, 50% of party branches or affiliated branches would have to indicate a desire to move to an open selection contest. My colleague Mish Rahman moved an amendment to ensure that this was reduced to 1/3rd of party branches / affiliated branches, which is in line with parliamentary selections introduced by Labour’s Democracy Review in 2018. Unfortunately this amendment fell. This looks like a step back for party democracy. Parliamentary trigger ballots were set at 1/3rd, why should this be any different? 

Motion on Members Electing the Leader of Sheffield Labour Group

My NEC colleague Nadia Jama presented a motion to the NEC calling for members in Sheffield to elect the leader of the Sheffield Labour Group, following an open letter to the NEC from Sheffield party members. There is provision in the rulebook for the NEC to pilot this so I was very happy to support this motion but it unfortunately did not pass. This could have been a fantastic opportunity to open up the election of the leadership of Labour in local government to grassroots members. 

Gemma Bolton 

Labour NEC CLP Representative 

Co-Chair / the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy