Labour
Party Conference 2017 - Report of West Ham CLP Delegate, John Whitworth
Purpose
of Annual Conference
The purpose of the Annual Conference is to set Party
policy and modify the way Party activity is conducted. This is done by voting
on policy documents and contemporary motions and by making rule change amendments
to the constitution. It should be, and I believe it is now becoming, the arena
in which Party members - through their delegates – make these decisions. Conference
is also a means of boosting the morale of party members and hopefully generating
a good impression of the Party in the eyes of the electorate.
Conference
Policy Themes
Over Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday the main policy themes were presented by the shadow ministers and debated
by Conference delegates, who were chosen by the chair to speak for up to 3
minutes.
They were:Protecting Communities; Brexit and Jobs, Living Standards and Investing in our Future Health and Social Care
National
Policy Forum Reports The
National Policy Forum (NPF) has policy commissions working in the following
eight areas: Early Years, Education and Skills; Economy, Business and Trade;
Environment, Energy and Culture; Health and Care; Housing, Local Government and
Transport; International; Justice and Home Affairs; Work, Pensions and
Equality. Each commission’s report was presented to Conference and all of them
were accepted by substantial majorities. This was only, however, after several
of them had been amended according to the new ‘reference back’ procedure
adopted at last year’s Conference. Previously, documents presented to Conference
had to be accepted or rejected en bloc,
but under ‘reference back’ a motion can be proposed to remove a particular
passage and reference it back to the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC).
If the latter considers this to be acceptable this amendment is then voted on
by Conference before the whole amended document is considered.
Policy
Commission Seminars
Away from the Conference Hall, there were three sessions of policy
seminars where the members of each Policy Commission of the NPF presented their
report and took questions from the delegates. There was a one-hour session on
Monday and two consecutive one-hour sessions early on Wednesday. As several seminars
were held simultaneously, delegates had to choose. I went to the International;
Health and Care; and Housing, Local Government and Transport seminars.
Contemporary
Motions
Contemporary motions are the means by which Party policy, as presented
in the reports of the NPF Policy Commissions, can be amended in the light of
events that occur in the six weeks or so before Conference. Constituencies are
currently able to send to Conference either
a contemporary motion related to policy or
a rule change motion. As you know, West Ham CLP sent a contemporary motion on
Housing. The CAC decided which motions they considered to be genuinely ‘contemporary’
and acceptable to Conference, then these contemporary motions were submitted to
delegates to decide which four motions they wished to prioritise. Constituency
delegates and trade union affiliates each chose four. The topics chosen were:
CLPs Trade
Unions
The NHS Growth
and Investment
Housing Workers’ Rights Social
Care Public
Sector Pay Rail Grenfell
Tower
In the priorities ballot I voted for all four of the CLP
topics that were chosen. A large number of CLPs proposed a contemporary motion
on Brexit and this was accepted as eligible by the CAC. However, this topic was
not given sufficient priority by delegates, partly because many wished to avoid
showing division on this issue to the public.
Compositing
the contemporary motions on the chosen topics
As West Ham was one of the sponsors of the Housing
motion, I was able to work on compositing the motion presented to Conference.
Also present at this compositing meeting were the Shadow Minister of Housing,
John Healey, a member of the NEC and a Labour Party official. As most of our
motions were similar, with only three of them distinctly different, I had
expected the majority submissions to be taken as a model while we discussed
which of the additional elements from the other three motions we wished to
include. However, we were presented with a text drafted by the Party office
which was substantially different from any of the motions and removed much of
the political coherence of these motions. At first we were led to believe that
we had to accept the office’s text as the basis of the discussion but as time
went on it emerged that some, though not all, sponsors wished for the form and
substance of the majority of the texts to be used as the basis of the composite.
The compositing, which was expected to last for about
an hour, took two and a half hours and we finished our Sunday night’s work at
10pm. My interpretation of the compositing session, shared by several other
delegates present, was that the Party officials had previously led to the way
with compositing and delegates had largely accepted their proposals, whereas in
our case the delegates were more assertive and the officials (and the shadow
minister) reluctantly gave way. When the majority view eventually prevailed, I
was happy with the below compromise that was reached:
“Composite 5:
Housing
We call upon Councils, in areas where the need for
social housing exceeds supply, to meet that need by:
directly delivering construction and
maintenance services that can guarantee high quality council housing, with
secure lifetime tenancies and genuinely affordable rent. ensuring a sustainable means of
meeting their local housing need by retaining ownership and control of
available public land.
prioritise (sic)
providing homes at social rents and to cease disposing or transferring of
public land, council estates and commercial property for the benefit of
private-sector housing and investment opportunities for the few. supporting
strengthening those communities that rely on social housing by requiring at
least 1:1 replacement, within the same neighbourhood of council homes sold or
demolished under regeneration schemes.
We call on Labour Party to:
create a new department to tackle the
housing crisis.
reaffirm the vital importance of
social housing in tackling the housing crisis. reconfirm
the manifesto commitment to build 100,000 council and housing association homes
for genuinely affordable rent or sale.
prioritise brownfield sites for the building of new homes. pledge
to ensure all new homes in the United Kingdom are built to the highest safety,
environmental and construction standards. Support
full binding - ballot rights for estate residents in any ongoing and future
regeneration projects. This would follow a comprehensive programme which fully
involves residents and their representatives in understanding the economic,
social and environmental consequences of any proposals.
Mover:
Tottenham CLP Seconder:
Gravesham CLP”
Adoption
of the Housing Motion
On the Conference floor on Tuesday, though one delegate felt that the
commitment to build 100,000 homes a year was insufficient, this motion was
passed overwhelmingly. I tried to speak in support of it but, despite earnestly
waving my papers from the second row, I was not chosen by the chair. The seven other
composited contemporary motions were passed by Conference with virtually no
opposition.
Emergency
Motions The
CAC considered 26 emergency motions, though only two of them were deemed
genuinely ‘emergency’ and were admitted to the Conference. One motion, moved by the GMB, condemned
assaults on emergency service workers and called for this to be made into a
specific criminal offence and the other, moved by Unite, called upon the
British and Canadian governments to meet with Boeing to resolve the Bombardier
crisis and thereby safeguard thousands of jobs in Northern Ireland. Both
motions were passed almost unanimously.
Constitutional
Amendments On
Tuesday the report of the National Executive Committee (NEC) contained three
proposals for constitutional amendments:
1) Composition
of the NEC: the number of NEC members will be increased from 24 to 28 with
three additional members representing constituency parties and one additional
trade union representative.
2) Nomination
of Leader and Deputy Leader: in the case of a vacancy for leader or deputy
leader, each nomination must be supported by 10 per cent of the combined number
of MPs and MEPs – reduced from the current requirement of 15 per cent.
3) Conduct
prejudicial to the Party: Chapter 2,
Clause 1 Section 8, Conditions of membership shall be replaced by a text
which includes the stipulation that the NEC “shall regard any incident which in
their view might reasonably be seen to demonstrate hostility or prejudice based
on age; disability; gender reassignment or identity; marriage and civil
partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; or sexual
orientation as conduct prejudicial to the Party: these shall include but not be
limited to incidents involving racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia or otherwise
racist language, sentiments, stereotypes or actions, sexual harassment, bullying
or any form of intimidation towards another person on the basis of a protected
characteristic as determined by the NEC, wherever it occurs, as conduct
prejudicial to the Party.”
On a card vote, I voted for these three proposals and
they were largely carried.
The NEC also proposed that the below rule changes on
the following topics, which had been submitted by CLPs and affiliates and
accepted by the CAC to be presented to Conference, be remitted. If the movers
did not agree, Conference was asked to vote against them. Conference was
assured that each proposed amendment, if not covered by the NEC proposals,
would be taken into consideration by the Party Democracy Review which will
report back to next year’s Conference. Rule changes on the below topics were moved
and seconded by 5-minute and 3-minute speeches respectively: Hatred and prejudicial language Allocation
of membership fees
Conference
Delegates
Contemporary Motions
Constitutional Amendments
Nomination of Leader and Deputy Leader – 5 per cent
Young Labour Local
Government Committee Accountability
of Labour Groups
After speaking in favour of their rule change proposal,
the movers of all the above amendments except one agreed – often reluctantly – to
remit their proposal, though most said they would return with it next year if
it wasn’t accepted by the Party Democracy Review. The mover of the Contemporary
Motions amendment initially refused to remit it, but then returned to the podium
shortly afterwards to accept. There was clearly a desire to accept compromise
and avoid publicising divisions on certain aspects of how the Party is run, as
well as a widespread feeling that most of the proposed constitutional
amendments would be adopted by the Party Democracy Review.
Voting
and Voting Procedures
Ballots: I took part in two votes during the
week which were done outside the Conference Hall in the Ballot Area by casting
votes in a ballot box.
On Sunday there was the Priorities Ballot to choose
the four contemporary motions to be promoted by the CLPs. As I stated above, I
voted for the Housing motion – the first choice of our CLP - and the NHS, Health
and Social Care and the Rail motions, all of which were chosen to be debated in
the Conference Hall.
The election for the CLP representatives on the
National Constitutional Committee took place on Tuesday and I voted for the
candidates nominated by West Ham CLP: Anna Dyer and Emine Ibrahim. They both
topped the poll with large majorities.
Hand
votes: Most votes on the Conference floor are by show of
hands by all delegates present, these included votes for the National Policy
Forum Commission reports, contemporary motions, emergency motions and the
various reference backs. When the chair judged the vote to be inconclusive,
separate shows of hands were requested from CLP delegates and affiliate delegates.
If the vote remained inclusive a card vote was then held to produce a decision.
Card
votes: A booklet of numbered and coloured cards, each
representing a vote for and against potential voting issues, was given to each
delegation. One vote was therefore cast per delegation, weighted according to
the membership size of the unit the delegation represented. For the scheduled
card votes, as I said above, I voted for the three rule changes proposed by the
NEC on: the Composition of the NEC, the Nomination of Leader and Deputy Leader,
and Conduct prejudicial to the Party.
Speakers
As
you know, most shadow cabinet members gave a speech as well as several leading
Party officials and some trade union leaders. I was impressed by the quality of
all the speeches, particularly as some of the shadow cabinet members are
relatively inexperienced. I was also struck by the clarity and boldness of the
commitments – of which I approved - made by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell in
particular. One of the highlights
among the speeches for me was actually the one by visiting speaker, Naomi Klein
- the Canadian writer and campaigner. I have admired her since reading several of
her articles and her book, Shock Therapy.
She ended a stirring speech by saying that transformational movements around
the world have been inspired by the resurgence of the Labour Party in the UK.
Fringe
Events attended (I
was only free in the evenings)
Saturday
Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD)
Pre-Conference Briefing. This was attended by
several hundred people, so speeches were given once to those inside the
Friends’ Meeting House, then again to those who had overflowed into the garden.
These short speeches were followed by a briefing on Conference procedures by
CLPD secretary, Pete Willsman.
Sunday None – I was in the
Housing contemporary motion compositing meeting until 10 pm
Monday
Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East Reception.
While I was there, a presentation was given by
Party General Secretary, Iain McNicol on charity work he had done in Palestine
and short speech made by Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornbury who said she
was a member of both Labour Friends of Palestine and Labour Friends of Israel
because she was working for a solution acceptable to the inhabitants of both
territories.
BAME Labour’s Diversity Social. There were two impressive
female acts while I was there – a fireater and a singer. I also enjoyed a tasty
buffet meal, though I didn’t recognise most of its contents.
Tuesday
Fabian
Society Reception. Wes
Streeting MP was doing a question and answer session when I arrived, after
which tasty small food dishes were repeatedly circulated.
Newham Drinks. This
was a rare chance for me, usually confined to the Conference Hall, to have a
nice chat and drink with many Newham members who had come for the whole Conference
or just for the day.
World Transformed Social. This
was a lively, high volume, celebratory event - which included a session of rap
music - to end the last full day of the Conference. I left soon after midnight,
but several other West Ham members stayed till much later.
Comment
As
someone who is supportive of the recent developments in the Labour Party and of
Jeremy Corbyn as leader, I found the Conference experience uplifting and inspiring
for the future. It was clear
that a majority of Conference delegates also supported the Party’s current
direction and for this reason several issues which could have appeared divisive
and embarrassing for the leadership were not taken up. The Brexit contemporary
motion and the rule change motion lowering the nomination threshold of Party
leader candidates to five per cent were examples of contentious issues that
were avoided. I was not entirely comfortable with this as I prefer open debate,
but I was satisfied that this was the will of a majority of the delegates. At
the same time, the presence of those who held different views on policy and the
leadership was in evidence in the Conference Hall, fringe meetings and in the
streets giving out literature. From what I saw, this difference of opinion did
not give rise to uncomradely behaviour and I found the atmosphere at the
Conference to be very cordial.
I enjoyed the privilege of representing West Ham CLP
at the Annual Conference and I hope that we will consider fundraising activities
and economy measures so that we can send more than one delegate in future years.
John
Whitworth
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