Summary
Here’s a summary of the day’s key events from our rolling coverage of the 2021 Labour Conference.
- Jeremy Corbyn has said Britain should stay out of the Aukus defence pact, which he fears could see the country drawn into a new cold war with China.
- Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, tore into “Tory sleaze” and tax-dodging firms as she set out plans to boost workers’ rights. Within the first 100 days of a Labour government, the party said it would legislate to launch sector-wide fair pay agreements, starting in social care, as part of a “fundamental change” to the economy.
- Leader Keir Starmer’s watered-down set of Labour reforms will be put to the party’s conference after he was forced to ditch a major shake-up of the leadership election process.
- Labour’s general secretary David Evans was backed by the party’s conference after facing down critics by putting his leadership role to a vote. Evans was supported by 59.05% votes to 40.95% in the vote at the gathering in Brighton.
Social care, Black Lives Matter, housing, and Israel and Palestine are among the 20 topics to be timetabled for debate at Labour Party conference.
The topics, which were chosen by a vote, are:
- social care
- mental health in the workplace
- green new deal
- high street and business recovery
- mineworkers pension scheme
- public services
- end fire and rehire and protect workers’ rights
- community wealth building
- a new industrial strategy for a post-Covid recovery
- public ownership
- housing
- electoral reform
- the NHS
- violence against women and girls
- immigration and asylum policy
- LGBT+ rights
- Israel and Palestine
- Black Lives Matter
- right to food
- and Afghanistan.
Meetings are taking place on Saturday evening to form motions for debate.
An insightful comment piece here from Marie van der Zyl, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who writes of a feeling of trepidation going into Labour conference which reflects the work the party still needs to do on antisemitism.
Updated
City of Durham CLP (Constituency Labour Party) delegate Brenda Stephenson told conference that Hartlepool could have been saved, had the CLP helped in selecting the Labour candidate in the by-election.
Stephenson urged delegates to vote on her amendment, which would see, in the event of a by-election or snap election, a five-person panel formed to undertake the shortlisting, comprised of three representatives of the CLP to be appointment by the CLP executive, one representative of the REC and one NEC member.
She said:
We need to re-establish the rights of CLP members to be fully involved in the process.
There is no evidence that involving CLP members in the choice of their own MP is a disaster - whereas, there is evidence that excluding them can be.
I am from the North East of England, as you can probably tell. It was heart-breaking for us from the North East to see what happened in Hartlepool. I never want to see that happen again.
The CLP were excluded from the contest and the candidate was imposed, who was plainly unsuitable for the area.”
I hate to be the first person to mention the ‘B-word’, Brexit, here, but Hartlepool was a CLP and was an area where the Brexit vote was incredibly high and the person who was picked, not by the CLP, was very much a leading light of the Brexit organisation. And to me, that was just a stupid thing to do. And I am confident that that if the CLP was involved, we could have saved Hartlepool.
Preet Kaur Gill, the Birmingham Edgbaston MP, told the Labour conference that the UK faces a “pandemic of poverty in the coming months”, blaming it on the Conservative Government.
She said:
Our communities have faced an onslaught from the Tories over the last 11 years.
Let’s be clear, we face a pandemic of poverty in the coming months: huge increases in fuel prices, an increase on National Insurance that puts the burden on the lowest paid, and at the same time we’ve seen the biggest overnight cut in social security since the Second World War.
This will mean millions of families going cold and hungry this Christmas.
Gill was speaking on behalf of the Co-operative Party, which has an historic electoral pact with Labour.
She added:
At times of crisis this past 18 months, the British people responded not with division but with co-operation. We choose to stand together with the hard-working families of this country against this attack on their living standards.
Murdered school teacher Sabina Nessa was remembered at Labour Party conference, as calls were made to better protect women and girls.
A period of silence was observed in the conference hall in Brighton in memory of Ms Nessa, 28, who was attacked while walking to meet a friend at a pub near her home in south-east London.
Shadow equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds said Labour wanted to make tackling violence against women and girls a “priority”, telling delegates: “No more excuses.”
Members then went on to speak in favour of a motion previously developed at the party’s women’s conference, PA reports.
This called on Labour MPs to press for the introduction of a stalking register to identify, track and monitor repeat offenders, ensure police forces provide protection to victims as cases progress, and require the enforcement of restraining orders - among other measures.
Joanne Oldale, of Poole Labour Party, said:
We’ve already spoken about Sabina Nessa today and the fact she was a woman in a public space and that simple fact alone made her vulnerable.
We should all say her name: Sabina Nessa, rest in peace.
In the short time since Sabina’s death, it’s likely that three further women have been killed by men in the UK.
Sabina’s death was not an isolated event. Far from it.
Women and girls face violence in the form of stalking, harassment and assault every day - in the home, in the streets, at work, online and at school.
Patricia Hannah-Wood, of Pendle Labour Party, said:
As you can tell I’m a trans-woman, but since I became a woman I have experienced undue harassment and violence against my person not only by misogynistic men, but women as well.
So it is not just men that cause violence.
But we must support this motion because without it, more people like the young schoolteacher who got murdered this week, more of them, more of us, are going to suffer that fate.
Stephanie Lynch, from Aberavon Labour Party, spoke about the “shocking misogyny” she had experienced since her election. She said:
Since being elected as a councillor this year, I’ve experienced really shocking misogyny within the party.
I was looking into the different rules that can kind of protect us against this kind of thing and it’s a rule within the Labour Party that I think, don’t quote me, but 50% of exec members have to be women.
I wrote to both Welsh Labour and UK Labour asking how many CLPs (constituency Labour parties) fulfilled this and they weren’t able to tell me as it’s not tracked.
So that kind of feels like a bit of a tick box.
Updated
More people could be tempted to embrace socialism by including music and poetry in every meeting, Jeremy Corbyn has said.
The former Labour leader told an event at The World Transformed conference, which is running alongside the Labour Party conference in Brighton, that political meetings did not need to be boring and “held on cold winter nights in miserable halls”.
And he said there were many different ways in which people could come to “political conclusions”, reports PA’s political correspondent Geraldine Scott.
Mr Corbyn was responding to a question from the audience on how to tackle a fear of the word socialism.
He replied: “Well, socialism is about everyday life and how you live your life.”
He said the “the vast majority of people do hold socialist values to some extent or the other”, and pointed to support for the NHS as an example.
But he said:
Socialism is also about culture, and art, and expression, which is why we shouldn’t sort of always cut ourselves off and insist that all meetings are only ever rather boring and rather dour and rather long, and preferably held on cold winter nights in the miserable halls.
Actually, I think all our meetings should include music, should include poetry, should include ways of getting people to think about things because people come to political conclusions by lots of different routes.
Let’s make sure we’re on all those routes as well.
Labour Party members have called for a means of deciding whether MPs suspended due to disciplinary action, like Jeremy Corbyn, should be allowed back in after a vote.
Jen Dunstan, of Sheffield Heeley Labour Party, called on the national party to bring a report on disciplinary action to conference every year, which would allow members to “confirm, or... void, any decision taken to suspend, or expel from the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party), any MP elected to Parliament as a Labour MP.”
Dunstan said there had been “unjust and seemingly indefinite disciplinary action against Jeremy Corbyn MP”, PA reports.
She added: “Please support, and let’s heal the wounds and build the unity we need to win a general election. Stronger Future Together.”
Wendy Nichols, a Unison official introducing the constitutional changes, said:
Our recommendation is to oppose this new change.
The clear legal advice we have received is that allowing extremely sensitive disciplinary cases, including those related to sexual harassment, to be debated on the conference floor would expose the party and individual members to a completely indefensible level of legal risk.
Updated
Corbyn: Aukus pact 'crazy beyond belief'
Jeremy Corbyn has said Britain should stay out of a defence pact that he fears could see the country drawn into a new cold war with China.
Earlier this month, Boris Johnson announced that the UK would join a new pact with the United States and Australia - dubbed Aukus - where the three allies agreed to co-operate on the development for the first time of a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines for the Australian navy, PA reports.
The move, widely interpreted as an attempt to check China’s growing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, was swiftly condemned by Beijing as a “geopolitical gaming tool”.
The Prime Minister insisted it was not intended as an “adversarial” move against China but was questioned in the Commons what the implications were if China should attempt to invade Taiwan.
He said the UK “remains determined to defend international law”.
Speaking at an event at The World Transformed conference, which is running alongside the Labour Party conference in Brighton, Corbyn said the idea of the pact was “crazy beyond belief” and could only lead to rearmament.
The former leader said:
When Biden said that he wasn’t very keen on nation-building any more around the world, a succession of Tory MPs and not a few Labour MPs as well got up and said, ‘well, if Biden won’t play the global role, we will... we’ve already got an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, and if Taiwan is under threat from China, we’re gonna get stuck in’.
Hang on a minute, they’re actually saying that this country - 65 million people, north-west coast of Europe, tiny proportion of the world’s population - should have a global arms presence and involve ourselves in an alliance that can only lead to rearmament of the West and of China, and of Russia at the same time.
This is crazy beyond belief, surely Covid has taught us something that real inequality is health inequality, is poverty, and the refugees are the ultimate victims of that.
I want to live in a peaceful world.
And if we’ve got differences with people, as we have on human rights, then challenge, then take it up, then support those in those societies that are demanding their rights, work with them.
But the idea we’re going to sort of bomb our way into these things is simply not very sensible.
Let’s learn the lessons of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Libya, of Syria, and talk to the 70 million people who are refugees around the world, many of whom are victims of war. We can do things differently.
David Evans keeps role as general secretary
Labour’s general secretary David Evans was backed by the party’s conference after facing down critics by putting his leadership role to a vote.
Evans was supported by 59.05% votes to 40.95% in the vote at the gathering in Brighton, PA reports.
The general secretary, viewed as being too close to party leader Sir Keir Starmer by some on the left, was also heckled during his address on Saturday from pro-Jeremy Corbyn members, who chanted the former leader’s name.
Evans told the party conference: “I want your support, that is why I will be calling for a card vote on my election as general secretary.”
During his speech, he asked the conference crowd: “Everybody remembers why they joined Labour. What was it for you?”
In reply, some Labour members began to chant “Oh Jeremy Corbyn!” and shouted out the former leader’s name as the reason they joined the party.
Evans continued: “For me it was seeing my brother Rob, who has a learning disability, being bullied. I wanted to live in a country where everybody is respected without prejudice.”
After Evans concluded his speech, Labour Party and union members cast their ballots in the conference hall.
According to the Labour Unions’ website, in a card vote at conference each constituency Labour Party and union “casts the exact number of votes for the people they represent, and these sets of votes are then weighted so both represent half of the total”.
This is intended to ensure that “all union and party members are accounted for”.
Evans’ appointment in May 2020 to the role of general secretary is considered divisive by some because of Mr Corbyn’s suspension from the party, and other actions against pro-Corbyn party members since then.
The Labour party treasurer, Diana Holland, told delegates that “in spite of everything we have had to face”, for the fourth and fifth full years in succession, the party remains debt free.
Holland said:
This past year has been a really difficult one for all of us and remains a difficult time for our finances too. In difficult times like these, the discipline of the NEC finance strategy, supported by all leaders and all general secretaries for more than a decade, has never been more critical.
It was this strategy that enabled the party to become debt free and it is this strategy that will ensure we stay debt free.
In straight terms, our finance strategy means all money spent is measured against our priorities as a party and as a movement, and our budget set and closely monitored to ensure future financial stability and security, money to fund the next general election campaign as well as delivering what is needed today.
The party’s treasurer noted that Covid had an impact on party finances, adding:
We had to hold back fundraising efforts and we lost major income from annual conferences.
Updated
Speaking at an event about the future of education, Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, had some critical words for Labour’s education policies, accusing the party of lacking ambition.
Whiteman told delegates at a fringe meeting at the Hilton Brighton Metropole:
We need a much more ambitious plan for education in the next decade, more ambitious than any party has yet put forward. As someone who represents school leaders, knowing how much they have given during this crisis, and how difficult circumstances were in many ways even before the pandemic, what I’ve heard so far from policymakers is very meek.
The world has changed and will continue to change at a startling pace. We need to equip young people with the skills to navigate what is in front of them. We should be talking about building a system that is stronger and fairer than the one we know.
The question is, who among those wishing to govern our country is going to be bold enough to propose something truly ambitious and world-beating?
Updated
A short period of silence was observed by Labour delegates in memory of Sabina Nessa, the primary school teacher murdered in south-east London.
The Labour party chairwoman, Anneliese Dodds, told the conference that “now, more than ever, Britain needs a Labour government”.
She told delegates:
The last 18 months have exposed just how unequal and unfair our country has become under the Conservatives. But the crisis also showed what the British people achieve when we come together.
Across our country, people united to look after their neighbours. Trade unions and businesses worked with the Welsh Labour government to build ventilators in record time and our NHS worked with thousands of volunteers, Oxford University and business to create a vaccine in months when that would normally take years.
We’ve shown that we are stronger together – and that’s the title of our policy road map.
Dodds also described the Tories as “callous” and “chaotic”, plunging new depths every day. She added:
This Conservative party shovels money to its chums and acts like there’s one rule for senior Tories and another rule for everyone else. This Conservative party likes to consider itself the party of opportunity and to be fair if, like my opposite number Ben Elliot, you are a nephew to a royal, were educated at Eton and can fly teabags to Madonna, you too could go far in the Conservative party.
Recently, Ben Elliott has been joined as Conservative party co-chair by Oliver Dowden, confirming what many in this hall have always known: that it takes two Tory men to do the job of one Labour woman.
Updated
Labour members have been encouraged to keep things civil at conference as part of a wider effort to show voters the party is a “potential government-in-waiting”.
Dame Margaret Beckett, the former cabinet minister who chairs the conference in Brighton, told delegates:
This hall is full of people with strong and different opinions. We’re here to discuss and debate, to listen to each other, to learn from each other’s experience and knowledge, to see where we can reach common ground.
But to hear as well as to listen, we need to show courtesy and civility to each other in our debates. But however exciting the debate, however welcome the results of the discussion, none of it means anything unless we can achieve the power to implement those ideas.
As a party, we’re always – quite rightly – reaching for the next horizon, striving for the next goal. So if we look back, we’ll probably remember most the things we didn’t like about Labour governments.
She went on to talk about Labour achievements in power before adding:
Part of our job this week is to continue the solid work of policy thinking, planning and preparation that you need to underpin effective legislation. But another part of it is in your hands – it’s to show to the British people a potential government-in-waiting.
She noted there were some “domestic matters” within the party which need resolving before she stressed the need to deliver for voters on jobs, homes and the climate.
Updated
Boos rang out at the conference in response to journalists from the Sun being allowed to attend the event, PA reports.
One delegate was applauded as she objected to the newspaper’s presence at the party’s annual gathering in Brighton. When a Labour official defended welcoming journalists from “a range of publications” some delegates opted to boo.
Copies of the Sun newspaper are banned from the party’s annual gathering following a decision taken when the conference was held in Liverpool in 2016.
A widespread boycott of the paper has been in place in Liverpool due to its coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
Four days after the tragedy, in which 97 Liverpool supporters died at an FA Cup semi-final tie against Nottingham Forest, the Sun ran a front-page story proclaiming to tell “The Truth” based on anonymous police claims.
This led to fans being smeared with accusations that some had “picked pockets of victims”, “urinated on cops” and beat up a policeman giving the “kiss of life”.
The newspaper later apologised, including on its front page, but sales and its reputation in Liverpool and among Liverpool supporters have never recovered.
A delegate called Emma from Sefton Central Labour Party told the conference in Brighton: “I’d like to know why the CAC [Conference Arrangements Committee] has allowed Murdoch’s lying Tory rag ...”
At this point her remarks became inaudible due to applause from fellow delegates.
She added: “I can’t believe Keir Starmer and the CAC have allowed that rag to come here.”
Harry Donaldson, who chairs the CAC, replied: “The Sun newspaper is not available in the conference – it has not been since the conference in Liverpool in 2016. We do, however, welcome journalists from a range of publications.”
As some delegates booed, Donaldson said: “The issue is, that is the reality of what it is at the moment – [we welcome] journalists from a range of publications, including News UK, to ensure widespread coverage of our annual gathering.
“But the Sun itself, as far as the paper, is not allowed to be distributed or advertised in the venue and it has been banned by conference since 2016.”
Applause was then heard in the hall.
Updated
Rayner promises to boost workers' rights and take on 'Tory sleaze'
Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, tore into “Tory sleaze” and tax-dodging firms as she set out plans to boost workers’ rights, PA reports.
Within the first 100 days of a Labour government, the party said it would legislate to launch sector-wide fair pay agreements, starting in social care, as part of a “fundamental change” to the economy.
Rayner used her speech on the opening day of Labour’s conference in Brighton to target Boris Johnson’s government.
She vowed to “stamp out the Tory sleaze that has polluted our politics and corrupted our democracy”, telling Labour activists the government was “taking 1,400 out of the pockets of a nurse while over £2bn of taxpayers’ money has been dished out to Tory donors and mates of ministers”.
There’s only one rule with this cabinet and that is that there’s one rule for them and one rule for all of us.
Rayner accused ministers of using the “public purse as a personal cashpoint”, adding:
We’ll stop the dodgy deals handing public money to ministers’ mates. It’s bad news for my pub landlord, but good news for the public.
And let me tell you this – as your minister for procurement, I won’t sign off a single penny that goes to a company that exploits its workers or doesn’t pay its taxes.
We will stamp out the Tory sleaze that has polluted our politics and corrupted our democracy. The racket is over. Their time is up.
Under the fair pay agreements promised by Labour, worker and employers representatives will be brought together by the government to agree minimum pay, terms and conditions, which would form a “floor” in a sector.
Other measures would include: an immediate increase in the minimum wage to at least £10 per hour; the creation of a single status of “worker” for all but the genuinely self-employed; the right to flexible working for all workers from day one; and a ban on zero-hours contracts.
Labour is also pledging to: increase statutory sick pay and to make it available to all workers; extend statutory parental leave; and introduce the right to bereavement leave.
The party would also end the trend of so-called “fire and rehire”, which has sparked a series of disputes amid complaints by unions that it is being used by employers to cut pay and conditions.
The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said:
Many of the key workers who got us through this crisis, including our dedicated care staff, are on poverty wages and insecure contracts. Fair pay agreements would help end this injustice and be a game-changer for millions of working families. Giving workers and their unions more power to bargain collectively is the best way to improve pay and working conditions across Britain. These much-needed proposals are about making sure that hard work pays off for everyone.
Updated
These are from the i’s Paul Waugh
Lab General secretary David Evans says everyone remembers why they joined the party. Activist heckles "cos of @jeremycorbyn!" prompting singing of 'oh Jeremy Corbyn'
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 25, 2021
Evans then wins applause as he says he joined in 1979 because his brother had learning difficulties..
His brother Rob had been bullied and that made him vow to join a party to fight for everyone. Rob,who stood as lab candidate in his local council ward in 2018, is in the audience
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 25, 2021
Evans says he's been accused of being part of one faction in Labour but says the only faction he's in is the 'organising faction', the unsung army who get Labour govts elected.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 25, 2021
Card vote called and done, on Evans confirmation as general secretary. Result due out early tmrw morning.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 25, 2021
Will give first accurate clue to balance of left/centre among grassroots here in Brighton
Other votes due today on rule changes like giving conference say over contentious PLP whipping decisions, and donations, but unlikely to be close.
— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) September 25, 2021
In her address focusing on employment rights and fair pay, Angela Rayner said:
Labour in power will give all workers rights from day one in their jobs: sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave and protection against unfair dismissal.
Here are some key extracts from the deputy leader’s speech, which included pledges for collective bargaining in every sector, banning zero-hours contracts, increasing statutory sick pay and introducing a right to flexible working:
When I think of the sacrifices working people have made, I think of Gill and Leslie, Unison reps who live in my constituency and do the same job now I used to do. They visit elderly and vulnerable people who can’t manage on their own. They’re paid less than a minimum wage which is already too low to live on because they’re not paid between visits. With every trip, for every person they care for, they face the choice: ‘Do I cut down my time caring? Or do I work longer hours without pay?’ It’s not a choice for Gill and Leslie. They’re carers in every sense because they care deeply for the people they look after. They value their work, and take great pride in it. They deserve not just fair pay and decent conditions, but dignity and respect. Basic values of our party, and of our country too. That is why today I’m publishing our green paper on employment rights.
This green paper is for every parent tearing your hair out about childcare, or who missed a sports day or parents evening because you couldn’t come in and leave early. It’s for every young person who daren’t turn down a shift on a zero-hours contract because you might not get hours next week, who can’t take a break and can’t get sick. And it’s for every worker who went to work and never made it home, and for their families who will never see them again.
A Labour government will bring together representatives of workers and employers to negotiate pay and conditions in every sector. Collective bargaining in every sector will end the free-market free-for-all that encourages undercutting, exploitation and a race to the bottom. It will give workers and their representatives a legally enforceable seat at the table to set a fair rate for the job, agree basic standards, tackle gender and ethnicity pay gaps, end discrimination, promote equality and make work accessible for disabled workers.
We will start with social care and the 600,000 carers who are paid less than the the living wage. In New Zealand, our sister party is establishing agreements just like these. In Wales, our own Labour government’s social partnership means that workers have a real say on issues that impact on their lives.
Labour in power will give all workers rights from day one in their jobs: sick pay, holiday pay, parental leave and protection against unfair dismissal. We will create one single worker status, banning bogus self-employment and ending the absurd situation in which you could wear a uniform, work regular hours solely for one business and yet be considered by the law to be self-employed. You are either a worker or you’re genuinely self-employed, and either way we will change your working life for the better. We will not only ban zero-hour contracts, but ensure all contracts come with minimum hours and reflect normal working life, requiring notice of shift changes and pay when they are cancelled at the last minute.
I think of the young parent in my own constituency, trying to bring up a child while working shifts on a zero-hour contract. Each week hoping that their shift can work around childcare because they can’t leave their little one waiting at the school gates but they have to put food on the table too. A Labour government will change their life, by writing common decency and fairness into the rules of our economy. And conference, that’s why Labour will end the scandalous practice of fire and rehire once and for all.
A global pandemic has reinforced for a lot of us how precious time off is, and how utterly exhausting the daily grind can be. So Labour will introduce a new right to flexible working as the default, protections for those with caring responsibilities and a right to switch off too. Working from home has given some of us a new freedom and flexibility, but it has also blurred the lines between what is home and what is work. A new economy needs workers’ rights that reflect the way we work now.
We will learn the lessons of this pandemic. Increasing statutory sick pay and making it universal, so that everyone can afford to live while they are off sick or self-isolating. That’s not only fair for working people, but vital for all of our health.
We will put mental health and safety on a legal par with physical health and safety, and make sure the laws are enforced by a new, empowered watchdog, unlike this government which has not prosecuted one single case over unsafe work in the pandemic.
Updated
"Britain deserves better and Labour will be better"
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 25, 2021
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner says "we must become the government our nation deserves, not the one it has"
Latest on the Labour Party conference: https://t.co/3U2cSqSxA0 pic.twitter.com/SWf7m67QmH
Angela Rayner is now opening the conference. She walked onto the stage to She Bangs The Drums by The Stone Roses.
#Lab21 kicks off in style with our very own @AngelaRayner speaking passionately about how Labour will change the future of work giving people rights and dignity from day one. pic.twitter.com/u9TyyO3Tmr
— Labour North West (@LabourNorthWest) September 25, 2021
Updated
I quite like being underestimated because then I can just prove them wrong.
— Angela Rayner (@AngelaRayner) September 24, 2021
Ahead of my speech opening Labour conference tomorrow I spoke to @thetimes about how my early life shaped who I am, my politics and who I am here to represent and fight for.https://t.co/RZOjz3f2rP
The Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle, has opened the conference by telling delegates about the need to convince Conservative voters to back the party. He stressed the importance of making residents’ priorities those of Labour, adding:
Listening to Tories doesn’t make you a Tory, it helps you beat them.
Updated
Watered-down Labour reforms will put party in better position, says Starmer
Keir Starmer’s watered-down set of Labour reforms will be put to the party’s conference after he was forced to ditch a major shake-up of the leadership election process, the PA News Agency reports.
Opposition from the unions and Labour’s left to proposals which would have dramatically increased MPs’ influence in the election of a new leader have been a blow to Starmer - a revised set of plans has now been agreed by the party’s ruling National Executive Committee and will be put to the conference.
Starmer said:
I’m very pleased these party reforms have got the backing of our NEC. These proposals put us in a better position to win the next general election and I hope constituency and trade union delegates will support them when they come to conference floor.
Under the original proposal, the one member, one vote (OMOV) system would have been replaced with a return to the electoral college made up of the unions and affiliate organisations, MPs and party members - each with an equal share.
Those plans were abandoned, although the revised proposals still amount to a significant shake-up and will face opposition from the left.
The package includes requiring candidates for leadership elections to have the support of 20% of MPs, up from the current 10% - Starmer had been understood to be pushing for 25%.
The Labour leader also wants members to have been signed up for six months to be allowed to vote in a future leadership contest and the “registered supporters” scheme which allowed people to pay 25 to vote in the 2020 contest would be dropped.
He also wants to make it more difficult to deselect MPs by raising the threshold for triggering a selection contest, with 50% of local branches in the Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and affiliated union and socialist groups needing to back such a move.
The amount of policy motions considered at the party’s conference would also be reduced.
Starmer sought to put the row behind him as he arrived in Brighton for his first chance to address an in-person party conference as leader.
In a statement, left-wing campaign group Momentum vowed to fight against the fresh proposals. Mish Rahman, a senior Momentum figure on Labour’s NEC said:
Changing the threshold like this will destroy the right of ordinary people to shape the future of the party. If this rule change passes, Labour will be well on its way to becoming the party of the Westminster elite. If the 20% threshold applied to the 2020 leadership election it would have been a contest between Sir Keir Starmer QC and Sir Keir Starmer QC.
The reforms are unlikely to be the only controversial issue debated by delegates on the south coast as the afternoon unfolds.
Since he took over in the early days of the coronavirus lockdown, all has not been well within the Labour party, and Keir Starmer is facing a conference week that many deem crucial to the future of his leadership.
In case you missed it, here is yesterday’s Today in Focus episode with the Guardian’s deputy political editor, Jess Elgot, explaining how, with the Tories already gearing up for a general election that could be announced within the next 18 months, Starmer is running out of time to make his case to the country.
There have been bitter divisions over proposed changes to the rules governing future leadership contests, and the party also finds itself in dire financial circumstances with officials at risk of redundancy and strike ballots looming. Then there are divisions over Labour’s policy offering and splits over issues such as trans rights. Meanwhile, waiting in the wings are potential challengers to Starmer, notably in the shape of his deputy leader, Angela Rayner, and the Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham.
You can listen to the episode here.
The Labour party meets this afternoon in Brighton for its first in-person annual conference since Keir Starmer won the leadership.
By the time the Labour leader arrived in Brighton, insisting the conference would be a chance to “set out our vision for the future”, he had already suffered a humiliating start to the day after being forced to water down proposals to the party’s leadership rules, ditching plans to return to the electoral college after resistance from party members and trade unions.
A revised set of plans, which is yet to be agreed by all trade unions, has now been put to the party’s ruling National Executive Committee.
My colleagues Jessica Elgot and Heather Stewart have the story:
Starmer sought to put the row behind him as he arrived in Brighton for his first chance to address an in-person party conference as leader. He said:
We’re all really, really looking forward to this, our first chance to speak to the party in person and set out our vision for the future.
We’re obviously in a crucial time for the country and this government is letting people down so badly, whether it is hammering working people on tax and Universal Credit, whether it is shortages of food and fuel.
Deputy leader, Angela Rayner, who is the shadow secretary of state for the future of work as well as Starmer’s number two, has privately made clear that she would like the conference to focus instead on attacking the government and setting out Labour’s offer to the country.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was her understanding that the electoral college plan would not be discussed at the NEC meeting, so would not be voted on by delegates at the party conference this weekend.
Other conference flash points for Starmer could include rows over Labour’s position on trans rights, commitments on tackling climate change and changes mandated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission after its investigation into anti-Semitism.
The conference is a significant moment for Starmer’s leadership, with pressure certain to mount if he fails to make a major impression on the public.
I will be bringing you updates from the conference throughout the afternoon. If you would like to get in touch, you can find me on Twitter @lucy_campbell_ or via email at lucy.campbell@theguardian.com.
