Setting an Agenda for Labour

Today delegates will have the opportunity to support the “PLP Report to Conference” rule change from several CLPs that will not only introduce some accountability to the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) but would give Conference the much-needed opportunity to restore the Labour Whip to Jeremy Corbyn MP.

There has been scurrilous scare-mongering regarding this rule change, and we can expect to see more lies on Conference floor today. This rule change WILL NOT allow Conference to interfere with PARTY disciplinary matters or allegations of sexual harassment. This claim is simply not true.

The rule change asks the Chief Whip to report to Conference on PLP disciplinary matters and allows Conference delegates the right to review this political disciplinary action if they wish to do so.

When Annual Conference last met, Jeremy Corbyn MP was our Leader. He drew hundreds of thousands of people, especially young people, into our Party and in 2017 he achieved our best election advance in a generation. An MP who is a member of the Labour Party should by rights be a Labour MP.

Delegates must vote to reverse the un- just and outrageously prolonged removal of the Whip so we can start to rebuild a Party that can win a General Election.

VOTE FOR

• Rheian Davies
• Anna Dyer
• Annabelle Harle
• Emine Ibrahim

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The NEC met on Friday evening for a surprisingly short meeting. We were expecting to discuss some of Keir Starmer’s hastily assembled ideas for the party rule-book, including:

– how Labour will elect its next leader

– the threshold for triggering a leadership challenge to a sitting Labour leader

– changes to the ways MPs are re-selected

– and the reduction of the number of policy motions for delegates to discuss at Conference

That’s a strange set of priorities for a leader to dream up on the eve of his first conference! Instead, the NEC only discussed rule changes related to accessibility in the Party for disabled members.

While it has been reported in Labourlist that Starmer’s meeting with trade union colleagues about his ideas was a “car-crash”, the rule changes could still come to Conference today or tomorrow. If they do, delegates should oppose all four rule changes as they would represent an unprecedented attack on members’ rights and democracy in our Party.

Gemma Bolton 

CLP Representative / Labour National Executive Committee (NEC)

Co-Chair / Campaign for Labour Party Democracy

Today Conference will be presented with a mixed bag of NEC rule changes. At best they represent welcome progress in our Equalities  Structures  (building  on  the Democracy Review) and tidy up rules on MEPs and the Welsh Parliament. At their worst, they transfer power from members/Conference to the NEC and/or the General Secretary. They also entrench factionalism: for example, one rule change under “Party Meetings” imposes an “approved  list” of organisations  to which CLPs can affiliate – probably aiming at outlawing groups such as Jewish Voice for Labour and Jeremy’s Peace and Justice Project.

It is outrageous to ask delegates to vote on so many rule changes without they, much less their CLPs, having a chance to discuss them.

NEC Rule Changes

Delegates are encouraged to SUPPORT packages on: National Equalities Structures; National Student Structures; Updates to Language

Delegates are encouraged to REJECT packages on Membership Rules; Party Democracy (sic); Party Meetings; Local Government

Delegates are also encouraged to REJECT changes to the disciplinary processes as the proposed changes will not introduce an independent process. (When Yellow Pages went to print it was unclear when these rule changes are tabled for discussion).

CLP Rule Changes

Delegates are encouraged to SUPPORT the following rule changes: 

STV for Councillor and PLP Sections of the NEC (Welwyn Hatfield CLP & others)

Members to have the right to freedom of opinion and expression (Dulwich & West Norwood CLP)

Today delegates should have the opportunity to endorse, or not, David Evans as General Secretary (GS) of the Labour Party.

Sadly David’s time as GS since Summer 2020 has been an unmitigated disaster. First came the crackdown on free speech, with CLPs prevented from discussing important issues, and with the subsequent suspension of key activists. This has been followed by some horrendous abuses of the Party’s disciplinary processes, including the proscription of organisations with the promise of more to follow and, most recently, the exclusion of multiple left delegates – in some cases with delegates already on their way to Conference.

Delegates may wish also to consider:

– the non-publication of the Forde report, over a year after the deadline set by the NEC

–  the large vote by Labour Party staff unions against organisational restructuring

–  the disbandment of the Community Organising Unit

– and the loss of 100,00+ members

Finally we have the seemingly purposeful meltdown of Labour’s electoral coalition and our appeal to young voters. The NEC must be asked to think again.

If the Election of the General Secretary does not appear as an item on the agenda in the CAC report it may be necessary for delegates to move reference back to the Conference Agenda part of the CAC report.

SUPPORT any reference back 

Vote AGAINST the endorsement of David Evans

Be ready to call for a CARD VOTE

We are aware of at least 20 CLPs – and it’s likely there are many more – who have had delegates excluded from Conference at the last minute. Some delegates were already on their way when they heard.

The reasons given for the exclusions seem to be a mixture of trumped up charges and auto- exclusions as a result of the recent decision to proscribe some left organisations and then apply that decision retrospectively  (and well beyond what the NEC agreed).

This shows a callous disregard for members’ mental health and finances – with many already on their way, having taken time off work and having arranged to cover caring responsibilities. It will disenfranchise some CLPs entirely and brings into question the democratic credibility of Conference, particularly along- side some of the delegate selection stitch-ups. It demonstrates  that the leadership is hell- bent on marginalising  party members,  with disgraceful disrespect for the hours activists put in fighting for Labour values and Labour election  victories.  If your  CLP is affected, please contact your NEC CLP reps.

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