Peter Kenyon

Labour Party challenges: rebuilding trust

Former Labour ministers are enjoying a last gasp of media exposure. It must be August. Paul Myners berated the Labour Party leadership contest as a failure in yesterday's Guardian here, and reportedly urged them to break the rules governing the hustings. Alan Milburn is off to advise the Tories, joining David Blunkett and Frank Field. (Yes, Frank was a minister over 10 years ago.) And amid the ConDem slash and burn proposals, Local Government secretary Eric Pickles takes out the Audit Commission, prompting wailing from his Labour shadow, John Denham and praise from fellow National Executive Committee (NEC) candidate,  Ken Livingstone, better known as a Labour London Mayoral wannabee. In the meantime leading self-proclaimed leftie blogger, Sunny Hundal has joined the Labour Party. 

Each of these episodes tells a tale about the role of trust in our politics. I want to concentrate on the Audit Commission. I had occasion to approach the Audit Commission (AC) informally about a fundamental breakdown in the established procedures governing local government finance some ten years ago. It was in the wake of catastrophic budgetary failure in the London Borough of Hackney. Researching the AC's functions I learned two important things: 1) it was set up by the Conservatives in 1982 while Michael Heseltine was the minister reponsible as Secretary of State for the Environment, and 2) that 'client' for the audit was not the local electorate, through its council and elected members; but Parliament, through the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons and the Secretary of State. In other words, for nearly 30 years, we have had institutionalised mis-trust in the management of local government finance.

Mistrust? Why so. Well in virtually every other form of collective activity, I can think of trust is institutionalised 'locally'. An unincorporated voluntary organisation's members appoint an auditor at their Annual General Meeting to report to them on the previous year's annual accounts and, looking to the future, advise on going concern. They are routinely enabled to pose questions at next year's AGM. Ditto, members of incorporated bodies, whether charitable or commercial.

On my journey (to coin a phrase in prominent use, currently) I have discovered while the Labour Party at branch and constituency level functions like that, well at least in theory. It is a different story nationally. Mistrust is institutionalised to the extent that as an elected member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee I am not allowed to question the Auditor directly, nor am I entitled to receive regular management accounts.

Our leadership candidates would do well to reflect on this before pontificating about the war or the deficit, or rebuilding trust with the electorate, or even members.

Is the Labour Party a going concern post-2010 General Election?

This is the question anyone is entitled to ask. It is one that every Labour Party leadership wannabe should be addressing. As an elected member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee, I was issued with a gagging order last year not to do so. Arguably, it sums up in a proverbial 'nut shell' what is wrong with the Labour Party's current governance arrangements.

A key feature of New Labour was to belittle due process. Today, how many Labour Party meetings feature a regular Treasurer's report with accounts? Certainly, not Labour's so-called ruling National Executive Committee. An instant audit of constituency and branch labour party meetings would be very revealing. My own branch and CLP treasurers provide a monthly update usually in writing if there are any significant changes. I think most members appreciate their willingness to be open and accountable. Annual accounts are audited and the auditor(s) make themselves available at the AGM. When there is slippage there is catchup.

Somewhere in the dim and distant past I took a different path from the sofa politicians of New Labour. Maybe it was helping in the local Co-op shop as a young lad in Lancashire. Perhaps it was reporting quoted company results for Reuters. Then there was a fraud by a local scout troop leader that resulted in my son and his fellow Scouts being cheated of an overseas camping trip, (The offender was eventually given a custodial sentence for breach of trust.) Whatever, I came to expect that in any voluntary association, or incorporated body I was involved in that the highest standards of financial reporting would be aspired to.

So what about those five Labour leadership wannabes? Four of them have been members of the Cabinet - governing the country, imposing targets, demanding accountability of others. Do any of them have a sense of irony?

Now to the substance of whether the Labour Party is a going concern. I have been informed that the 2009 accounts have been signed off. It is regrettable that there was no NEC meeting beforehand with the Auditor(s) both elected and appointed present to answer questions. So the answer to the question is I don't know. I could speculate. But I won't. I just want to see the figures with my own eyes and have an opportunity to question the auditor(s) myself. I belief that some of the 16,464 members who voted for me to represent them on the NEC expect no less.

Which Labour Leadership wannabe will speak out against these 'New Labour' practices, and defend my rights?  Which  will support the call for a proper Annual General Meeting at Conference? We need to know if we are to learn from the past and create a sound foundation for the future.

Labour Party staff - exceeding authority

Ever since I became a Labour Party explorer the bush telegraph has resounded with allegations. Today, I was telephoned by Ken Clark, London Labour Party Regional Director to confirm that one of his regional officers had issued incorrect instructions to a group of CLPs instructing them to postpose their AGMs. I thanked him for putting the record straight. What better way of making the case for AGMs at the regular time? I reflected on this here.

The temptation for anyone in a position of power is to hang on. Of course, that will not be the case with Gordon Brown. He will be going to the country on 6 May, rather than hang on until 5 June. But for party unit officials in obscure places like, to name a couple of examples, say, Barking or Stoke, who ought to face re-election in February, it would be so convenient to have their AGMs postponed.

Key message to CLP secretaries - how are we going to motivate members to come out and campaign, if we don't ensure that they have a say?

More insinuations, and innuendo sprinkled with the occasional fact can be read here.

Labour Party branch challenge - AGM time

My wife and I got to bed in the wee hours this morning following the City of London Labour Party 2010 AGM and monthly Fundraising supper.

We had an AGM with a written Annual Report (partial) and Accounts (unaudited). We elected a chair, vice-chair, secretary (me), treasurer, campaigns officer, youth officer and membership secretary (me), plus four GC delegates with a vacancy that will be filled before the CLP AGM

There was a full and free debate about Labour's electoral propects and how we are going to campaign. Our newest member has only been in the Party a week! S/he was not press-ganged into taking on any elected position at his/her first branch meeting.

BTW the supper raised £90, and will go a significant way to offsetting our loss of £129.59 in our local election year 2009, when we spent around £2,500 taking on the City establishment.

My pals in Charlton Labour Party across the Thames in Greenwich tell me they had 23 members attend out of 95 at their AGM the previous night. The position of chair was hotly contested and went to a second ballot after a tied vote. Save the Labour Party Secretary, Mark James, was elected chair 11:9 on the second ballot.

Labour Party NEC Officers meanwhile decided that party units could defer AGMs until after the General Election. I shall be be registering my objections to this major lapse of good governance at the next NEC meeting on 26 January. But coincidentally, NEC Officers advice has been misinterpreted by Party staff in at least one region. Party units there have been instructed NOT to hold AGMs. I have demanded an immediate retraction.

How else can party members hold their colleagues exercising delegated authority to account? How else can they be satisfied that income and expenditure has been handled honestly? Of course, such trifling matters are not of much concern at Labour Party HQ.