Momentum attacks Labour rulebook changes after defeat over MP reselections
3 min read
Momentum has attacked a swathe of changes to the Labour rulebook passed at the annual party conference, branding them a “meagre set of reforms”.
The pro-Jeremy Corbyn campaign group lost out on its bid for automatic reselection of sitting MPs and its preferred nomination rules for leadership contests.
It said the changes, agreed on the Labour conference floor and announced today, fall “well short of what the members want, with many key proposals being watered down or blocked”.
Labour delegates in Liverpool last night voted to make deselecting a sitting MP easier by reducing the proportion of local members needed to trigger a new selection contest.
The threshold was reduced from 50% of a Constituency Labour Party membership to just 33% - although Momentum had been calling for automatic reselection contests.
Conference also voted to shake-up the process for nominating party leadership candidates. Hopefuls will now need the backing of 5% of CLPs or 5% of affiliated trade unions alongside 10% of MPs.
Momentum had demanded to end the ‘PLP veto’ by setting an equal threshold for each section of 10%.
A spokesman for the campaigning group issued a furious response when the results of the conference votes were read out this morning.
“While the Democracy Review has passed it is only a meagre set of reforms, falling well short of what the members want with many key proposals being watered down or blocked,” he said.
However the spokesperson added that the changes “could have been much worse”.
“Although it stops short of open selections, the changes to how parliamentary candidates are selected will give members far more say in who represents them and help open the door to a new generation of MPs,” he argued.
“And while the change in the leadership rules is deeply disappointing, it is not the dramatic increase to the leadership threshold proposed earlier in the week which would have stopped a socialist candidate getting on the ballot in a future leadership contest.”
The spokesperson added: “Jeremy Corbyn promised a radical expansion of democracy in the economy and wider society and this logic must extend to the Labour Party too.
“If we can’t make democracy work in Labour, we can’t make it work in the rest of society.”
When the ruling Labour executive agreed the trigger ballot changes on Sunday night, a party source said: "Corbyn has declared war on Momentum by siding with unions and failing to deliver open selections.
"But it will probably lead to at least a dozen MPs being removed."
A Labour source said: “This rule change reforms the existing re-selection process, giving members and trade union affiliates a greater say in who represents them, but does not move to automatic open selections, as some have called for.”
A party spokesperson said: “Following the Democracy Review, Conference has passed rule changes to remove barriers to political participation and help transform our Party into a mass movement for the many, not the few.
“The Democracy Review is one of the biggest democratic exercises undertaken by any political party, with over 11,000 submissions and hundreds of consultation meetings held across the country.”
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