A report of Tuesday’s National Executive Committee by left CLP reps Jess Barnard, Gemma Bolton and Yasmine Dar.
Summary
- Anti-democratic rule changes to reduce the representation of trade unions on the Conference Arrangements Committee and to further insulate the leadership from Party members on the National Policy Forum were deferred in the face of opposition from the Labour left and trade unions.
- Further rule changes that reduce democracy, including ones to reduce the accountability of Labour Groups to local Parties, reduce the number of required meetings that members are invited to attend, and to raise the minimum age requirement to 18 for some key CLP officer positions, were approved and will need to be opposed by delegates at Conference.
- Left-wing reps on the NEC challenged the Party leadership on a number of issues including the suspension of MPs for opposing welfare cuts, membership engagement and Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.
Labour’s National Executive Committee met on 22nd July, starting with obituaries for Sir Bill O’Brien and Lord Lipsey, followed by the Deputy Leader’s report. Angela Rayner ran through highlights of Labour’s achievements in government, expressing disappointment that more time is spent talking about what’s going wrong than what’s going right.
Jess Barnard expressed deep unhappiness amongst Labour members that the Labour government is not doing more to put pressure on Israel to prevent their ongoing horrific actions in Gaza, and asked what more would be done. While Rayner acknowledged the disastrous situation, more of her answer referred back to the horrors of 7th October 2023 and the need not to forget the hostages or those impacted in the events of that day.
The General Secretary’s report was next, with concern expressed about the rise of the far right, and the need to mobilise members and voters in opposition. Gemma Bolton asked about the undemocratic decision to overturn the election of a left Leader of the Council in Southwark (see here and here), which has caused much upset amongst local members, and appears to be entirely factional. The answer given did not restore confidence.
There was an additional question about why Phil Wilson, now a government minister, can remain as a CLP rep on the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) when being on the front bench is specifically prohibited. The response was that he was not a frontbench member when he originally stood; nevertheless, the precedent for standing down is clear and there is an obvious conflict of interest between the two roles. It is unsurprising that the leadership do not want runner-up and Women’s CAC veteran Jean Crocker to take up her rightful place with her dogged championing of democratic conferences and members’ rights.
Further questions included the need for a policy search on the website; and, with the introduction of votes for 16 and 17 year olds, how we can best encourage young people to vote Labour, when they can’t necessarily see how the government is delivering for them.
Keir Starmer faced some awkward questions following his Leader’s report, which focused on the NHS and investment in housing – although still with too much emphasis on so-called ‘affordable’ housing rather than council housing. Jess asked how it is possible to convince members to stay as Labour members when they see MPs being disciplined for standing up for disabled people and then briefed against, while the government should be taking further actions against Israel, in light of atrocities committed in Gaza. Starmer acknowledged that the negative briefing had been wrong but defended the decision to suspend the whip, despite there being no historical precedent of Labour MPs being disciplined this way simply for voting against the government in over 60 years.
Another CLP rep asked a question about the proscription of Palestine Action, which members are very concerned about, and asked whether it is helpful for often elderly protestors to be detained for peaceful protest. On Palestine Action, the response was unclear and unsatisfactory. On the situation in Gaza he said that unlawful lack of safe access to aid was intolerable and claimed the government were working with allies to create the conditions for a two-state solution, but did not address the UK’s continued sale of arms to Israel, the use of British reconnaissance flights over Gaza, and his own ongoing refusal to recognise Palestine as an independent state.
Other questions included delays to the Hillsborough Law, which Starmer said was important to get right rather than rush into; and the failure to commit to co-production of policy with disabled people, and to listen to disabled members’ concerns about the welfare cuts, raised repeatedly for many months. Starmer conceded only that communications were not handled well but didn’t acknowledge the moral, economic and political flaws behind the entire case for cuts to welfare. A trade union rep asked about support for BAE systems, inviting Starmer to visit to show support for weapons manufacturing, which he did not commit to.
Next up was Cabinet Member’s Report, on this occasion Shabana Mahmood. It would be helpful to our meeting preparations to have some notice of which Cabinet Member is reporting. Mahmood covered a range of issues including prison capacity, community policing and measures to tackle violence against women and girls. Unfortunately the continuing crackdown on the right to protest was not covered, and it would have been useful to hear how the stretched capacity is usefully aided by the increasing numbers of peaceful protestors being arrested.
Under the Party Chair’s Report there appeared to be a lack of urgency in addressing falling membership and disengagement. A detailed question was asked, and not addressed, about the National Policy Forum (NPF) process being unfit for purpose. Jess asked, in the absence of membership numbers, about any key indicators that could be shared about recruitment and retention of members, so that the NEC can fulfil its obligations. It was noted that membership numbers will be shared in the annual report, but the question was otherwise ignored.
Finally, at around 4pm, the agenda moved on to arguably the most important business: constitutional amendments for Annual Conference. Constitutional amendments from CLPs were considered, and Gemma spoke in favour of a rule change that would enable CLPs with a relatively low Labour vote to select their Prospective Parliamentary Candidates a lot earlier, noting that many CLPs have not had the opportunity to democratically select the candidate of their choice for well over a decade. Gemma noted that the NEC is making decisions that make it appear not to care at all about the average member. A wide range of NEC rule changes were considered for submission to Annual Conference, most of which were designed to reduce member engagement, and roll back more of the progress made following the 2018 Democracy Review and previously.
- A rule change to dilute the representation of trade unions on the CAC and to add a representative of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) was deferred following strong opposition from trade union reps. As left CLP reps, we support the proposal to add an additional CLP rep to the CAC but we are against reducing trade union influence and strongly opposed to adding a PLP rep who should not be getting involved in Party management and would have a conflict of interest in deciding which issues Conference should debate. The CAC should be facilitating democratic policy-making and elections, enabling the government to listen to grassroots members and trade unionists; it has no need for a PLP rep.
- A proposal to change elections to the CLP places on the National Policy Forum from being elected via One-Member-One-Vote (OMOV) to being elected at Annual Conference – a reversal of a gain for Party democracy over a decade ago – was deferred following strong opposition, particularly from CLP reps who understand how disenfranchising and disengaging this is for the wider membership. Gemma, along with other CLP reps, called out this undermining of members’ rights, pointing out that many smaller CLPs do not even send any reps to Annual Conference, and that rising costs of sending delegates are prohibitive for many CLPs, so this proposal would disenfranchise thousands of members. There was particular concern about how youth reps could be elected by such a small number of youth delegates. She also noted that the cost of OMOV voting is relatively small for such a big exercise in democratic participation, and that allowing all members to vote is important in trying to ensure Labour’s policy reflects the input of ordinary members and voters. Ellen Morrison the Disabled Members’ Rep pointed out that many disabled members are already excluded by the lack of accessibility of Annual Conference and this would be a further backwards step.
- A rule change was agreed for submission to expand how legal sanctions on individuals impact on their ability to stand as candidates. While presented as perfectly reasonable, there is some concern that its intersection with restrictions on the right to protest will prevent active campaigners on certain issues becoming candidates.
- Votes, some relatively close, were taken on rule changes to make a candidate contract mandatory, to remove the role of Observers from Labour groups, to raise the minimum age requirement to 18 for some key CLP officer positions, with some very dubious arguments about statutory requirements. Jess argued that barriers to young member engagement should be removed, not erected, with removing democratically elected, perfectly capable young members as officers, sending the wrong message. Jess also raised objections to a backwards step in how Young Labour groups could be recognised, drawing on her experience as Young Labour Chair, which were dismissed without justification. Gemma raised the importance of accountability in local government and the important role members should be playing in selecting candidates, campaigning for their election and then holding them to account, as a contribution to local democracy. A local government rep seemed affronted by the need for accountability and once again concerns were dismissed rather than addressed.
- Rule changes to reduce the minimum number of CLP meetings to which members are invited from eight to six, and to remove the Regional Chair and Vice Chair elections from Regional Conferences were also agreed, despite our opposition.
It was positive that rule changes aimed at reducing the influence of grassroots members and trade unions were not agreed by the NEC, building on the growing opposition on the NEC to anti-democratic proposals that we saw in the last NEC meeting.
However, other anti-democratic rule changes that the NEC agreed to support will go forward to Annual Conference. Delegates need to be ready to oppose these further attacks on Party democracy and elected member accountability.
Once again, the meeting featured both factionalism and inaccessibility. The Chair purposely skipped over hands raised by left reps on several occasions, and a lunch break just after the meeting started, followed by virtually no break for the rest of the day made good decision-making challenging. Nevertheless, we continue to try and ensure the concerns of grassroots members are heard at the NEC with a degree of success and will continue to do so in future meetings.
Jess Barnard, Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar are all CLP representatives on Labour’s NEC. They were reelected in 2024 with the support of the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance.