Tagged with Party Renewal

Ed’s office has done him a disservice, but the worst culprits pose as loyal party staff

Since we reported on Monday that Ed Miliband’s office had overstepped the mark in the structure of Labour’s new executive board, things have gone from bad to worse. Further details of the new structure have emerged, the Guardian has reported that the “Labour party staff react with fury to plans for new executive board” and, as blogger Emma Burnell puts it, “there’s been leaking, complaints about leaking and leaking of the complaints”.

Given what he stood for, Ed Miliband has been done a great disservice by his own staff in what has been done in the his name. However, there are also some unholy alliances and hidden agendas about here that the leakers are not keen to expose. Continue reading →

Leader’s office oversteps mark with Labour Party HQ

(see also update here)

When the Labour Party announced the appointments to its new executive board last Friday, it appeared that elements in the leader’s office were trying to take over the running of the party machine. The new board was to have consisted of six new posts plus the general secretary. Two of those plus one other newly created and not advertised will go to existing leader’s office staff who will continue to work there at least some of the time. In addition, Tim Livesay and Lucy Powell, the leader’s chief and deputy chief of staff will also sit on the board in spite of not reporting to the general secretary. Continue reading →

Compass and party democracy – good intentions misdirected

On Friday, a letter appeared in the Guardian which argued that the party needed to change and be refounded, power should be handed back to the membership and the NEC should commit to a programme of bold and radical reforms that would re-democratise the party and devolve power away from the centre. So far, so good. The letter was organised by Compass and the signatories, such as Jon Cruddas, Lisa Nandy, Tony Robinson, Neal Lawson and Professor Jonathan Rutherford, were mainly people who have been closely involved with Compass, and after a lengthy and divisive debate about recruiting members of other political parties, it is welcome that Compass is turning once again to key issues within Labour. Continue reading →

The real test of Ed’s commitment to democracy is on reform of the wider party

Labour MPs have voted today to back Ed Miliband in abolishing shadow cabinet elections, with 196 (76%, or 83% of those voting) in favour, 41 against and 20 not voting. Last September the same PLP had rejected the same proposal and, instead, voted to elect the Chief Whip for the first time (although in the end Ed Miliband ensured that his favoured candidate was elected unopposed).

Interestingly, the proposal will go to the Party Conference as part of the Refounding Labour process, led by Peter Hain. This will be the first time the party conference has voted on the rules of the PLP which, unlike every other section of the party, has always agreed its own rules. Perhaps that innovation will somewhat moderate the disappointment of many in the party outside parliament that internal party elections are being abolished. The real test, however, of EdMiliband’s commitment to democracy within the party will be in how he and Peter Hain propose to reform the party’s structure. Continue reading →