Tagged with Labour Internal elections

Support Katy Clark and Jon Lansman for the Conference Arrangements Committee

Clark & Lansman for CAC v1Although most Labour Party members are now focused mainly on working for a Labour victory in the general election, there are some important internal party elections shortly after 7 May. Since the closing date for nominations in those elections is 10 June and many constituency parties won’t even have a cycle of meetings before that date, many are considering their nominations now and readers of Left Futures need to know who is standing from Labour’s Centre-Left for the positions up for election.

There are three important national committees on which constituency party representatives are up for election: Continue reading →

With a 25% threshold, Labour would’ve had just 3 or 4 Leadership elections in 100 years

Crown of India by Pietro & Silvia, at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ImperialCrownOfIndia2.jpgMark Ferguson at Labour List reports today that “credible reports suggest that in future a leadership candidate will need to secure the support of 25% of MPs to get onto the ballot paper rather than the previous figure of 12.5%.” By my estimation (see below), had there always been a 25% threshold for valid nominations by MPs, there would only have been three or four contested elections for leader in the history of the Labour party — in 1922, in 1963 (though George Brown would have won), in 2010 (just) and possibly in 1976 (if not, Michael Foot would have become leader unopposed). Although it is mathematically possible to have three candidates in a contest with a 25% threshold but no more, even these contests would have been only two-way.

We have had the recent experience of the “coronation” of Gordon Brown. It was not a happy one, and it served neither the party nor Gordon himself well, though he was himself in large part responsible. The fact that he had never faced a contest undermined his authority and allowed Blairites to repeatedly threaten to challenge him though they never really had the numbers to pull it off. It is not worth risking more coronations and it is therefore vital to resist any significant increase to the current 12.5% threshold where there are vacancies.  Continue reading →

The Blairite party-within-a-party recognises its lack of support at grassrooots level

NEC electionsTwo months ago we questioned whether the Blairite party-within-a-party, Progress, would be able sustain its alliance with the more traditional Labour right-wing faction, Labour First, whose leading members are John Spellar MP and Luke Akehurst. The combination of a growing political gulf between the two organisations, especially over primaries and the role of trade unions in the Labour Party, and the realisation that Progress faced an embarrassing defeat seems to have sealed the end of their electoral alliance in internal party elections.

Having advertised for candidates to apply for endorsement as NEC candidates by their elected strategy board last November (in a process designed to convey the appearance of transparency and internal democracy), it finally emerged this week that they have decided to back two candidates: Continue reading →

Do Labour whips really want to run its conference too?

The election for the two constituency party representatives on Labour’s conference arrangements committee (CAC) is hotting up. After the local elections, the two candidates backed by the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance Katy Clark MP and Pete Willsman began campaigning in earnest. Katy has been MP for North Ayrshire and Arran since 2005 and Pete is the only person to have served on all four of Labour’s national bodies, including the national executive and an earlier 13-year spell on the CAC.  Somewhat belatedly, two challengers have emerged, Heidi Alexander and Tom Blenkinsop, both not only MPs but also opposition whips.

Whips in the House of Commons are agents of the Leader. Their primary function is management and control of the parliamentary party. They act on behalf of the Leader and, in theory at least, with the knowledge of the Leader. It is surprising therefore that two whips appointed by a Leader who promised to create a “living breathing party“, in which members had “more say over policy“, should seek to represent constituency parties on the body that is supposed to manage the party’s sovereign policy-making body. Continue reading →