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You have three days to get a motion to Labour conference

The closing date for constituency parties to submit contemporary motions is this week — 12 noon on Friday 16 September. At present, this is the only opportunity CLPs have to make their own policy proposals direct to the party conference – although submissions are invited by the national policy forum, there is no guarantee that anyone will even read them let alone give them serious consideration.

Model motions from the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and others are available:On the urban riots, the economy, Refounding Labour, Housing, Recognition of Palestine, Defending multiculturalsim and opposing racism, Islamophobia and the far right, and Education Maintenance Grants, download here. On cancelling a Trident replacement, download Labour CND’s draft here. From the LRC, you can donload motions on Rail Fares and RenationalisationThe Riots and Young People and One Million Climate Jobs.

Alternatively, you can write your own. However, you will need to bear in  mind Labour’s criteria for deciding if a motion is contemporary:

In deciding if a contemporary motion is valid (contemporary) the CAC will consider the following points:

  • Is the issue already addressed in the Conference agenda?
  • Has the issue been dealt with by the NPF and Policy Commissions in their reports to Conference?
  • Could the issue have been sent to the NPF, Policy Commissions or the NEC before they published their work?

A motion will be deemed to be contemporary if:

a) It is 250 words or less and deals with one subject.

b) It deals with a topic which arose after the publication of the reports of the National Policy Forum (NPF), Policy Commissions or National Executive Committee on 31 July or has not been substantively addressed in those reports. Copies of the reports will be sent to delegates in early September. In the meantime a list of the subjects dealt with by the policy commissions in 2011 is enclosed together with a summary of the contents of the NEC Report to 2011 Conference.

c) The issue could not otherwise have been raised through the Partnership in Power process.

d) It does not seek to bypass either the National Policy Forum policy-making or National Executive Committee decision-making processes or to overturn or revisit the Party Policy Programme as agreed through the Partnership in Power process, including issues defeated at the NPF which failed to achieve the status of an alternative position at the NPF.

The annual reports of the National Executive Committee, the National Policy Forum and the Policy Forums will be sent to delegates in early September. In the meantime please find attached lists of the topics to be covered on the Conference Agenda and in the various reports.

You will have one further opportunity in the shape of emergency motions which must:

  1. be on an issue which could not reasonably have been the subject of a contemporary motion, or
  2. have arisen after the closing date for contemporary motions – Friday 16 September at 12 noon, or
  3. is an issue of urgent and immediate importance to the discussion by the whole Labour Party at Annual Conference
  4. be received by Friday 23 September at 12 noon.
  5. emergency motions must be emailed (no form required) to:

CAC@new.labour.org.uk and a hard copy, signed by the CLP secretary or Chair, sent or delivered to the Conference Arrangements Committee, The Labour Party, 39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HA or faxed to 020 7783 1506.

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