Peter Kenyon

Euros: What's in Westminster water?

Having just seen the declarations in Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber, I am wondering what's in the water in Westminster and the City? Labour was down 12 % points in Wales and 7.5 % points in Yorks and Humber.

City of Westminster 2009 (2004)

Conservative 42% (38%)
Labour 18% (21%) - down 3% points
Green Party 13% (9%)
Lib-Dem 12% (14%)
UKIP 8% (10%)
BNP 3% (2%)

Turnout 28.76% (35.63%)

City of London 2009 (2004)

Conservative 33% (32%)
Lib-Dem 19% (18%)
Labour 16% (20%) - down 4% points
Green 15% (12%)
UKIP 9% (11%)
BNP 2% (2%)

Turnout 34.56% (36.97%)

Perhaps its because we have been out campaigning fairly regularly.

Labour government reshuffle - what's the holdup?

Scanning news headlines the media consensus presumes a reshuffle is on the way after the 4 June elections. I am struggling to find any conceivable reason for Gordon Brown to wait a day longer. He is the Prime Minister. He decides who is in and who is out. Unlike the Labour Party National Executive Committee, he doesn't have to wait for due process to decide who is a fit and proper person to serve in Her Majesty's Government. Or does he?

He has succeeded in driving through reform of MPs expenses, secured cross-party support from a review of previous claims and taken control of the allowances system out of the hands of MPs themselves. The Labour Party NEC has agreed measures to establish a new code of ethics for Labour Party candidates, discipline offenders and ensure working with its local members that its candidates at the next election are fit and proper persons. A major reshuffle/purge ahead of the European Parliamentary elections is needed. Though care will have to be taken to ensure Cabinet ministers with a case to answer are out, and everyone retained and promoted is beyond reproach.

As a member of Labour's NEC, I have received a lot of angry emails and comments on my blogs about apparent anomalies in the treatment of different ministers, as well as between ministers and backbenchers. Some of this upset can be accounted for by shock about what has been going on in Westminster. Some can't, perceptions of scapegoating can't be easily brushed aside.

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who thinks they know of strong evidence of an anomaly, which I could add to a case I have already referred to the powers that be. Once reviewed and explained we need to be open about the reasons why apparently similar cases are being dealt with differently. Otherwise, there is no way in which party members' confidence in the NEC and the Party Leader/PM is going to be restored, let alone that of the electorate in Labour's competence to govern.

As for a 'national plan' aired here. Oh, deary me. I'm very fearful of any plan telling us all what's good for us, without any debate. But, if the national plan was to open debate on fair pay, taxation and ending poverty, the proper role of the private sector, together with constitutional reform, that would be a different matter. It might save the Labour Party.

Labour Party needs to act over its MPs' expenses - poll

Among the issues arising from revelations about MPs' expenses, is what should the Labour Party be doing about its own elected representatives currently in Parliament and those Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) who hope to represent it in future?

I have been fulsome, some might say slavish, in my unprompted praise for our Leader, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his controversial decision to force changes to MPs' expenses entitlements onto the agenda. Given the constitutional niceties, he is free to take direct action against any minister deemed to have been 'milking the system' to 'feather their own nest'. It is contemptible that Labour MPs, especially cabinet minister(s) are retreating behind the excuse that 'it was within the rules'. That is no different than saying 'I was only obeying orders' - indefensible.

What I want to explore are the other layers of governance and accountability within the Labour Party itself. What are the officers of CLPs in, for example, Salford considering in the light of revelations about their MP, Hazel Blears? For those of us, Labour Party members,  who do go out on the doorsteps, canvassing and delivering leaflets, this is very much our business. Why should any of us volunteer our time to enable someone on the make to get into Parliament?

And in its turn, what is the Labour Party's National Executive Committee going to do? It has extensive powers to tackle members who allegedly bring the Party into 'disrepute'. When we meet on 19 May, I don't think we can let the matter pass. I just hope I am not alone in thinking we have to act, and act now before the June elections. Speed is needed to progress, however painfully, the rebuilding of public trust in parliamentary democracy, in general, and the Labour Party in particular.

UPDATE 1310 - For Labour Party members who would prefer to comment in the relative privacy of Membersnet go here.

UPDATE 1345 - For anyone wanting to vote on this issue, Mike Ion has set up a poll on Labourhome here.

Cabinet irresponsibility and housing - who's in charge?

Blairite secretary of state for Communities and Local Government, Hazel Blears, would be better advised spending more time on her departmental responsibilities and less grabbing headlines that appear to undermine Labour's Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

There are lots of reasons why Labour has lost electoral support. But one, that is directly under Blears' control, is social housing for rent. A shortage of social housing is widely seen as one of the factors feeding xenophobia and the rise of the BNP. Labour's shameful opposition to council housing ownership (now being reversed) is part of the wretched legacy from Blair's political idol, Tony Blair.

At Labour's last NEC meeting, I asked if events highlighting Labour's efforts to keep a roof over people's heads as the recession bites could be given greater prominence in the ministerial media grid. Now that senior cabinet figures are rallying to support Labour's leader, perhaps Blears can be reminded to start delivering on social (particularly council) housing with some high profile, headline catching media opportunities, preferably before the 4 June elections. This would be a more effective way of persuading the electorate that Labour under Brown has learned from its mistakes under Blair.

Update 1609: And Tony agrees with me.

Is this going to help rally Labour for the Euro-elections?

My CLP has got two speakers tonight on the European Parliamentary elections - both candidates - Claude Moraes MEP seeking re-election at top of the Labour London regional list and Cllr Emma Jones who is also running on the London list.

I have just seen this report on the BBC News website about the Working Time Directive. I do worry about what the Labour government is thinking about? Employment Minister Pat McFaddan and Labour Party National Policy Forum chair is reported as saying:

The opt-out had worked successfully for many years and ending it would have been a "bad deal" for the UK in the midst of a recession.

Unemployment has risen above two million while thousands of employees, particularly in the car industry, have had their working hours reduced in the face of weakening demand.

"Everyone has the right to basic protections surrounding the hours that they work but it is also important that they have the right to choose those hours," he said.

"The current economic climate makes it more important than ever that people continue to have the right to put more money in their pockets by working longer hours if they choose to do so."

Wakey, wakey, Pat! People working lots of overtime are invariably people not being paid a decent rate for the job in the first place, or sometimes just plain greedy. Labour values include promoting a living income and mutual co-operation, not depressing wage levels or promoting selfishness.

Have we learned nothing after 12 years in government?

Budget illustrates growing Labour/Tory divide

Alistair Darling's 2009 budget helped offer voters a clearer choice between Labour and Conservative. The country goes to the polls in less than two months to choose its representatives in the European Parliament. This is usually an opportunity for the electorate to kick the government of the day. On 4 June a more serious electoral challenge looms. Should we the people indulge ourselves and put a smile on the face of the anti-Labour, xenophobic, anti-European media? Or on reflection, is this the time to take a more considered view and give the  Labour the thumbs up?

For all their bluster just what would the Tories have done? Who cares that borrowing is the highest since World War II? What matters is whether there would be even more people out of work as a result of the reckless behaviour of some bankers, if our Labour government had not stepped in. More journalists should be demanding answers of the cynical Conservatives.

Is the Labour Party contesting every election possible?

Yesterday evening I picked up the phone to follow up an eMail from a CLP secretary concerned about the Labour Party's priorities. A council by-election has been triggered by the death of a sitting Tory councillor. At the same time the CLP has just had its share of membership subscriptions sequestered by the Labour Party nationally to part-pay a flat-fee of £1,200 towards the costs of the Euro-elections being outcharged to every CLP in the country. This is despite letters from the CLP to HO to offer to pay in instalments, so that the local party can continue to meet local campaign costs.

Questions are now being asked by volunteers locally whether to bother to field a candidate in the forthcoming local council by-election.

This example raises a number of issues. I don't want to detract from the importance of election cycle financial planning by branches, CLPs and other party units, about which HO itself is utterly silent. But foremost concerns the Labour Party's finances nationally. Are they in such a dire state that an equally important national political goal of fighting every seat is being undermined as a consequence? After all we keep on being reminded that every vote counts in the forthcoming European Parliamentary elections in June.

Gee-20 Gordon, why spoil it with EU working hours opt-out?

The G-20 communique is a triumph for British Labour Party leader Gordon Brown.

It's a pity that he has evidently failed to rein-in one of junior ministers, Pat McFadden MP who was reported earlier today as doggedly defending a continued opt-out of the EU maximum 48-hours working week directive. This is despite a vote against the opt-out by EU Parliamentarians including the majority of British Labour Party MEPs. All of them face re-election in two months' time.

Remarkably Pat McFadden is still chair of the Labour Party's National Policy Forum.

It's official - local council and Euro elections same day

Local government minister John Healey MP announced today in the House of Commons that local council elections in 2009 will take place on the same day as the European Parliamentary elections - Thursday 4 June. The political challenge for the Labour Party is to turn it into a referendum on how well Labour in government has been managing the financial crisis working in partnership with our European Union neighbours.

Mandelson back: there are Euro elections in 2009

I have no inside information, but listening to commentary I have yet to hear any reference to the European Parliamentary elections next year in the context of Peter Mandelson's return to Cabinet.

Knee-jerk reactions from the left of the Party are not helpful. We have to retain the confidence of business if we are to get the economy growing again. Mandelson is widely respected for his role as Business Secretary previously and in Brussels as European Commissioner/vice-President for Trade.

Labour's European policy has been sidelined for too long. I'm hoping that this move heralds the start of a rebuilding of relations. Party members will welcome that if it means of bolstering social safeguards, anxiously sought by the trade unions. This may be counter-intuitive given there is no love lost between Mandy and the brothers and sisters. But the Party needs to help persuade the voting public that membership of the EU offers a genuine alternative to the little Englanders in the Conservative Party.

Rather than fearing a thumping in the Euro-elections in June next year, we need to turn it into an opportunity for an interim refresher of Labour's mandate to govern, with the economy steadied, increased investment in health and education, and a further redistribution of income to low and middle income families consolidating the Party's commitment to the fairness agenda.

On a personal note the creation of and Energy and Climate change department is very good news. Labour needs to mend its fences with the green movement. This could be a belated step in the right direction.