Paid Party staff should act impartially

Transcription

1 Paid Party staff should act impartially The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 1 Constitutional Rules. Clause VIII The National Executive Committee. Paragraph 2 reads as follows: 1 The primary purpose of the NEC shall be to provide a 2 strategic direction for the party as a whole and to 3 maintain and develop an active party in the country, 4 working in partnership with the party s 5 representatives in Parliament, the European 6 Parliament, devolved administration and local 7 government to secure the party s objectives. Add at end: To support the achievement of these objectives the NEC shall ensure that sufficient full and part-time staff are employed. All staff employed by the party, when carrying out their duties, must always act impartially. Any failure to do so will be treated as a disciplinary matter and serious breaches could lead to dismissal. In recent years there has been a very disturbing increase in the partisan involvement of the Party s fulltime officials in internal Party elections. This is completely unacceptable and against the Party s official Code of Practice for these elections. Paid officials should act as neutral civil servants. Our rule change would set out for the first time in the Rule Book that it is a primary duty of paid Party officials to act impartially whilst carrying out their duties.

2 Accountability of the leader The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 4 Elections of national officers of the party and national committees. 4B Procedural rules for elections for national officers of the party. 4B.2 Election of leader and deputy leader. 4B.2b Nomination. Paragraph 4B.2b (ii) reads as follows: 1 Where there is no vacancy, nominations shall 2 be sought each year prior to the annual 3 session of party conference. In this case any 4 nomination must be supported by 20 per cent 5 of the Commons members of the PLP. 6 nominations not attaining this threshold shall 7 be null and void. Line 3 after conference insert: The General Secretary shall send to each Commons member of the PLP a nomination form for each of the offices of leader and deputy leader. This must be sent in good time to allow for compliance with the paragraph (ii) of the subsection of rule 4B.2d (Timing of an election). 1 The obligation imposed by rule 4B.2b(ii) that nomination [for the election of the leader and deputy leader, whether the party is in government or in opposition,] shall be sought each year prior to the annual session of party conference, has been ignored for several years. The fitness for office of all national officers of the party and members of national committees is routinely tested in periodic internal re-elections or reselections and it is hard to see why the leader and deputy leader of the party should not be subject to the same democratic control. To initiate this mechanism of accountability is the responsibility of the office of the General Secretary. This is implied under rule 3C2.5 of the Procedural rules for party conference, Conference rule 2 Agenda, which requires that nominations for leader and deputy leader, the NEC, treasurer, [etc.] shall be sent in writing on the form provided to the secretary at the offices of the party by the closing date agreed by the NEC. Those entitled to use official nomination forms can hardly complete and send them to the General Secretary without having received them from his/her office in the first place. In order to make the provisions under 4B.2b (ii) absolutely clear ( nominations shall be sought each year ) the amendment spells out the General Secretary s responsibility in this matter. 1 When the PLP is in government and the leader and/or deputy leader are prime minister and/or in Cabinet, an election shall proceed only if requested by a majority of party conference on a card vote.

3 More NEC seats for CLPs National Executive Committee: Representation of Scotland and Wales The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 4 Elections of national officers of the party and national committees. 4C Procedural rules for elections for national committees. 4C.2 Election of the National Executive Committee. Paragraph 4C.2a (iii) reads as follows: 1 Division III (CLPs) shall consist of six 2 members, at least three of whom shall be 3 women, to be nominated by their own CLP 4 and at least two other CLPs. The ballot for 5 these places shall be conducted among all 6 eligible individual members of the party by 7 means of a national one-member-one-vote 8 postal ballot conducted to guidelines laid 9 down by the NEC. Line 1: Delete: six and insert: eight Line 2: Delete: three and insert: four Line 4: After ballot for insert: six of Line 8: After ballot. insert: There shall be two separate ballots for the two remaining places, one in Scotland and one in Wales. They shall be conducted among all eligible individual members of the party in Scotland and Wales respectively by means of a one-member-one-vote postal ballot. All three ballots to be Supporting Arguments The Scottish and Wales Labour Parties have a separate identity to that in the English Regions and each has its own General Secretary. In addition the Scottish and Welsh parties now monitor the work of the Labour Groups in the Scottish parliament and Welsh Assembly. There is therefore a strong case for automatic representation on the NEC from Scotland and Wales. Our suggested rule change increases CLP representation from six to eight. It would redress the loss of a seat from seven to six which CLPs suffered in 1997 when Partnership in Power was first introduced. The unions have 12 seats on the NEC. Parity with the unions should be our aim in the longer term.

4 4 + 4 should equal 8 The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 3 Party conference. 3C Procedural rules for party conference. Conference rule 2 Agenda. Paragraph 3C2.3 reads as follows: 1 All affiliated organisations and CLPs may submit 2 one motion on a topic which is either not 3 substantively addressed in the reports to 4 conference of either the NPF or the NEC or which 5 has arisen since the publication of those reports. 6 The CAC shall determine whether the motions 7 meet these criteria and submit all issues received 8 to a priorities ballot at the start of conference. 9 The ballot will be divided into two sections. One 10 section for CLPs and one section for trade unions 11 and other affiliated organisations. At least the 12 first four priorities selected by CLPs will be time-tabled 13 for debate, as will at least the first four priorities 14 selected by Trade Unions and other affiliated 15 organisations. Motions must be in writing, on one 16 subject only, or be in the form of a constitutional 17 amendment and must be received by the General 18 Secretary at the offices of the party by the closing 19 date determined by the NEC. Add at end: When drawing up the list of subjects for the priorities ballot the Conference Arrangements Committee must ensure that each subject is substantively separate from the rest. If any of the priorities chosen by the trade unions and affiliated organisations coincide with those chosen by the CLPs, then the first four choices prioritised by the trade unions and affiliated organisations will be debated, and the fifth, sixth and so on choices of the CLPs will be deemed to have been selected until a total of at least eight substantively separate subjects have been timetabled for debate. Partnership in Power structures introduced in 1997 limited members direct input into conference to only four subjects. In practice these were chosen by the unions. Thanks mainly to union dissatisfaction with the way the conference agenda was being managed, the 2003 Conference passed a rule change which provided for four topics to be chosen by CLPs. But when in 2004 it came to voting for priorities, CLP delegates were pressurised, first by ministers in briefing sessions and then by members of the staff when collecting their ballot papers, that they should only vote for subjects chosen by the unions on the grounds that there would not be time to debate more than four subjects. The result was that only one additional subject to the unions four was debated in 2004 and only two additional subjects in The New Labour plan to avoid debate and the possibility of the platform s defeat on other highly controversial subjects was therefore largely achieved. This rule change would ensure that there were eight subjects debated, four chosen by the unions and four by the CLPs.

5 Ministers to be ineligible to serve on CAC The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 4 Elections of national officers of the party and national committees. 4C Procedural rules for elections for national committees. 4C.3 Election of Conference Arrangements Committee Paragraph 4C.3d reads as follows: 1 Every affiliated organisation and CLP may 2 nominate an eligible member of the party for a 3 seat on the CAC. If elected she or he must be a 4 delegate to, or an ex-officio member of, any 5 party conference held during his or her period of 6 office. Add at end: Members of the government (when the Party is in power) and members of the Parliamentary Committee (when the Party is in opposition) are ineligible to stand for the CAC. The CLPs have two seats on the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) and for many years these were occupied by rank and file members. In recent years, however, they have been filled by government ministers. To operate as it should, the CAC must always be independent. Most controversial issues at conference relate to government policy and this puts the ministers in an impossible position. They cannot serve two masters. They are always under pressure to follow the government line, rather than the democratic interest of the delegates. This rule change would prevent such a clash of interests.

6 Defining contemporary The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 3 Party Conference. 3C Procedural rules for party conference. Conference rule 2 Agenda. Paragraph 3C2.3 reads as follows: 1 All affiliated organisations and CLPs may submit 2 one motion on a topic which is either not 3 substantively addressed in the reports to 4 conference of either the NPF or the NEC or which 5 has arisen since the publication of those reports. 6 The CAC shall determine whether the motions 7 meet these criteria and submit all issues received 8 to a priorities ballot at the start of conference. Line 5: after reports delete all up to and including conference in line 8 and insert: All motions submitted under this rule will be accepted by the Conference Arrangements Committee for a priorities ballot at the start of conference, unless the events covered by a motion have been explicitly referred to in either of these two reports. When Partnership in Power was introduced in 1997, the New Labour leadership hoped to dispense with motions altogether, but as a result of pressure from the unions a few motions on contemporary issues were conceded. The window given to these motions was ridiculously short. In practice CLPs only have about two-and-a-half weeks at the beginning of September to formulate and submit a motion. As a result only about one third of CLPs represented at conference submit a contemporary motion. The powersthat-be then seem to do their best to rule out as many as possible. For example, in 2004, only 123 CLPs submitted a contemporary motion. Of these 61 were allowed into the priorities ballot, but 62 were ruled out by the Conference Arrangements Committee for not being contemporary. The major problem is the wide discretion that the rules allow to the conference arrangements committee. Our proposed rule change aims to restrict the CAC s discretionary powers, and thus give more CLPs a chance to have their voice heard at Conference.

7 More delegates to conference The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 3 Party Conference. 3A Delegations. Paragraph 3A.1(c) reads as follows: 1 Where the individual women s 2 membership in a constituency is 400 or 3 more, an additional woman delegate 4 may be appointed. Where the individual 5 Young Labour membership in a 6 constituency is 100 or more an 7 additional delegate under the age of 23 8 may be appointed. Line 2: delete 400 and substitute 100. Line 6: delete 100 and substitute 30. Line 7: delete 23 and substitute 27 in the Young Labour membership. This rule change will allow an extra woman delegate for CLPs with more than 100 women members, and an extra young delegate for CLPs with more than 30 young members. This aims to ensure that at least two delegates are eligible to attend Conference from each CLP, so allowing for experienced delegates to attend alongside new delegates, who can be subject to particular pressure. The rule change also ensures that any Young Labour member of the CLP, i.e. aged under 27, is entitled to be the extra delegate, not just those aged under 23.

8 More delegates to conference The Labour Party Rule Book Section A. Chapter 3 Party Conference. 3A Delegations. Paragraph 3A.1(b) reads as follows: 1 Delegates duly appointed by CLPs 2 to the number of one delegate for the 3 first 749 individual members... Line 3: delete 749 and substitute 400. This rule change allows each CLP to send one delegate per 400 members instead of per 749 members as it is currently. It aims to reflect changing levels of membership and ensure that CLPs are properly represented at Conference. The change may mean a CLP can send more than one delegate, so allowing experienced delegates to attend alongside first-time delegates, who can be subject to particular pressure.