Peter Kenyon

Election readiness - an opportunity for Labour, but threat to control freaks

Labour's leader Jeremy Corbyn wants members to decide who will be their prospective parliamentary candidate at the next General Election. Given the Tories inability to govern that opportunity might not be far away. Reactions to Ian Lavery MP's recent pronouncements suggest that the age of entitlement in the Labour Party is not over (yet). Let me untangle these issues.

Ahead of the shock, surprise May 2017 General Election, Labour was so ill-prepared that the NEC took upon itself the power to select candidates. Serial rebel MPs in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) were given a 'Get out of Jail' card. However much local disquiet to a sitting MP standing again for re-election - tough. Labour's rebels have much to thank Tory PM Theresa May for her decision to call a snap election. Their candidacy was safe. Though in some isolated places previously safe Labour seats were lost.

With the Tories in disarray over how to govern (full stop), never mind Brexit, the prospects of another General Election in 2017 require decisive action on the part of Labour CLPs and the NEC. The mantra is that nothing can be done without the authority of the NEC. I find that jobsworth approach utterly depressing. The Labour Party needs candidates in place for both local, regional and national elections much earlier than has been common practice.

National contingency planning needs to focus on the full panoply of opportunity - national, regional, local and, dare I add, European elections. If the NEC is unable to provide detailed guidance ahead of the July meeting cycle for local parties, IMHO CLPs should get on and ask the June 2017 PPCs whether they wish to stand again. In the absence of an acceptable 'sitting candidate', then CLPs should invite expressions of interest and enable all their members to take part in a selection process.

This may mean some ruffling of feathers among Labour MPs with an inflated sense of entitlement, tough. Members are entitled to decide. It is in the rules. What is the problem? Oh, yes - entitlement. Well, sorry peeps, it's time to get real.

 

Purnell goes: an occasion for Labour Party mourning?

Today's Financial Times first editorial is headlined: Purnell gives up on the Labour Party.

I'm at a loss to know why James Purnell should be seen a bellweather for the future political direction of the Labour movement.

His recent statements suggest he's confused about the future. As well he might be having overseen regressive, punative welfare reforms in his capacity as former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Now out of office, he celebrates community development.

Meanwhile, the fight for the soul of the Party goes on.

PM speech: Towards a new politics - reality checks for Labour

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's speech to IPPR yesterday was well-crafted. But for me it omitted simple reality checks for the Labour Party - a democratic socialist party. Our politics demands among other things mutual respect, meticulous record-keeping and a willingness to accept the outcome of a vote when decisions are required. New Labour lacked all three. Our Labour leader's speech lacked any reference to those requirements too, in the context in which I think they are relevant to the task Brown set out:

So we will change both the Commons and the Lords, because we are so profoundly committed to the renewal of parliamentary democracy. We will ensure that the new politics will be delivered in the House of Commons, and we will do more to restore the relationship of mutual respect between MPs and those who elect them.

I see this as work in progress between now and the election. But if we neglect the machinery of government, the patronage exercised by the Prime Minister, the deployment of the Whips, political party infrastructure and so on, Labour will continue to fail to convince.

That is why as a member of the Labour Party National Executive Committee, I am calling for any member of the Labour Party's Special Selection Panel to be debarred from applying to run as a PPC in the General Election in less than 100 days time. It will simply be seen as 'parachuting' by the local electorate.

That's why having seen an internal report on Stoke Labour Parties, I am calling for an urgent review to enable members to unite to fight the BNP, and the other opposition parties.

That's why Save the Labour Party continues to campaign for an ethical, solvent, democratically run, mass membership organisation. Many say, rightly, it never has been. But that doesn't mean it shouldn't aspire to those goals. On the contrary, a radical manifesto presented to the electorate in less than 100 days time by such a party would be far more credible with the electorate than farcical efforts to revive 'New Labour'.

Labour aspiring MPs: NEC fast-tracks selections

Is it a plot? Or is it just being practical? On a day when Taliban Tories were venting their spleen on the airwaves about Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) being parachuted in or 'imposed by Conservative Central Office in the wake of the Liz Truss affair, I found myself in a Labour Party National Executive Committee meeting confronted by a laid-round paper proposing changes to our own PPC selection procedures.

Labour led the way in British politics to get more women and BAME candidates selected as PPCs and elected, not just to the Westminster Parliament, but the European and Scottish Parliaments, the Welsh Assembly and local councils throughout the UK.

Following parliamentary expenses scandals, deselection, resignations, rumours of stitch-ups, parachuting in and the unsolved mystery of ballot-box tampering inside Labour Party HQ, there is now a log-jam.

It should be broken on Monday 23 November. The newly established Special Selections Panel, with delegated powers, will hold its first meeting at 1pm. Its first task will be to establish more open and transparent criteria for deciding which seats should be All Women Shortlists, and where BAME candidates should get a preference. The timetable for selections once authorised has been slashed to five weeks.

From 1 January 2010, the Panel will also have the power to decide the shortlist of candidates. Here's the rub. Will this be an opportunity to recruit fresh talent, or seen as one for the 'powers that be' to slot in old lags as lobby fodder for favours past and present? In debate, the NEC was unanimous that constituency labour party members should continue to vote for their PPC, and have a predominant role in shortlisting. The only exception might be a very late PPC withdrawal after an election has been called and nomination day looming.

So my advice to any CLP in the log-jam is get vocal, make sure your elected constituency representatives on the NEC are fully briefed.

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.

Gordon Brown's workout

Healthy living and regular exercise are in. Indeed we have been been regaled with stories of our esteemed Leader's own efforts while on holiday. Reinvigorated to face the challenges of multi-tasking - governing the nation and leading a mainstream political Party - what's there to workout? How to win the next election, of course. Doh!

Well, there's the checkover first. How many voters in one's own constituency, that's Kirkaldy and Cowdenbeath, say they are Labour voters? When were they last asked? How many members have we got to go and find out today? How many members are we likely to have to canvass in a year's time?

Next step line up the PLP in the gym and ask the same questions.

Time for a warm-up. Step forward Labour MPs in marginal seats. After Glasgow East that might as well be everyone.

First exercise: up the contact rate. Any volunteers? The invitation provokes much muttering from the backbenches - volunteers, membership, morale?

What was that aside at the back.....policies appealing to long-suffering voters, a rousing speech to conference and a government re-shuffle....what more do you want?

GMB to redirect funds for Labour to CLPs

This week's GMB annual conference is reported to be considering proposals to redirect its political funds towards consitituency party development and away from sponsoring MPs and supporting the Party nationally. According to the report:

Instead the GMB plans to put more cash into encouraging its members to take more control over constituency parties so the union has more influence over party policies.

I think I know what they meant to say. or at least I hope they meant "...encouraging its members to take more active interest in constituency parties...."

That would be more in the spirit of democratic socialism that the Labour Party states in its Constitution that it is all about.

For live coverage of the GMB conference click here.

UPDATE 1255 GMB General Secretary, Paul Kenny, denied reports that the union had provided indemnity for GMB representatives on Labour Party National Committee. Presenting his report to Conference he also said that no GMB members' money would go to repay loans from rich business people.

Labour MPs each get £2,200 demand to help party funding

Hat-tip to Austin Mitchell MP for reporting the Labour Party's latest efforts to shore up its finances. I'm wondering how much members of the payroll vote are being asked to contribute.

Perhaps MPs would now like to vote in the poll re Tony Blair and whether he should help too.

Miliband E. continues digging over 10p tax cock-up

A deeply depressing interview with Ed Miliband MP, Labour's election manifesto supremo and Cabinet minister by Martha Kearney has just been broadcast on BBC Radio 4's World at One. Hint 1 : Stop digging, Ed Hint 2: Go back to the transcript Hint 3 : Ask for briefing on a) possibility of extending provisions of the remaining 10p income tax band, and b) possibility/cost of cash compensation for all those (possibly as many as 5.3 million) who will be WORSE OFF.

There was a very helpful observation by tax expert Robin Williamson of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group reminding listeners that the 10p income tax rate has NOT been fully abolished. Frank Field MP who is proposing that this injustice must be dealt with proposed a cash compensation payment to all the people adversely affected by the proposed simplification of the tax system.

Time to put the kettle on. Polly.

10p tax fiasco - do Labour MPs get out enough?

Remember this? Remember the consequences? Remember the 75p increase in state pension? John Hutton (since when was he the Chancellor of the Exchequer?) has been widely reported today ruling out a rethink on the 10p tax rate.

"We are talking in the worst case scenario about half a per cent of net income being the scale of the maximum loss that someone might have," he said.

Well, that's alright then. Peasants, be grateful. Yes, that really is going to go down well on the doorstep.

UPDATE (Monday am) - According to latest reports backbench Labour MPs may have woken up. Look up the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee (full report) and PLP chair Tony Lloyd MP's contribution to the Radio 4 Westminster Hour last night. That leaves Labour Cabinet ministers in the frame.