How shall we write Labour's manifesto in local elections?

One area of the current Labour Party Democracy Review which won’t necessarily attract the attention of the media (which may be a good thing) concerns the arrangements for relationships between the Party locally and Labour Groups on local authorities.

During the decades of decline, in which Party membership fell away and the democratic structures of the Party were hollowed out, Labour Groups were increasingly reorganised (often around the undemocratic model of Cabinet Governance or the even more undemocratic model of an elected Mayor) in order to ensure the discipline of Labour Groups in delivering the so-called “New” Labour agenda.

Labour Councillors were taught that they were part of a small “elite” who had to circle their wagons against political opposition (including that from those within their own Party who believed that our purpose was to represent working class people rather more than to administer the local state against the interests of those people).

That time is over and is not coming back. Those lessons – where they were learned – need now to be unlearned.

We can easily write change into our Rule Book by borrowing locally from arrangements which we have long had nationally.

Our Rule Book provides for the manifesto in a Parliamentary election to be approved by the various parts of our federal Party structure (at what is known as a Clause Five meeting) as follows (from Parts Three and Four of Clause Five of Chapter One of the Rule Book);

“When in Government the NEC, the seven backbench members of the Parliamentary Committee of the Parliamentary Labour Party (‘PLP’) plus the Chair of the PLP, the Cabinet, the Leaders of the Scottish and Welsh Labour Parties, the Chair and three vice Chairs of the NPF, two CLP members of the NPF to be elected by CLP delegates to the NPF, and eight Trade Union members of the TULO Contact Group, shall decide which items from the Party programme shall be included in the manifesto which shall be issued by the NEC prior to every general election. The joint meeting shall also define the attitude of the Party to the principal issues raised by the election which are not covered by the manifesto.

When not in Government the NEC, the Shadow Cabinet, the Parliamentary Committee of the Parliamentary Labour Party (‘PLP’), the Leaders of the Scottish and Welsh Labour Parties, and the Chair and three vice Chairs of the NPF and eight Trade Union members of the TULO Contact Group shall decide which items from the Party programme shall be included in the manifesto that shall be issued by the NEC prior to every general election. The joint meeting shall also define the attitude of the Party to the principal issues raised by the election which are not covered by the manifesto.”

However, when it comes to local elections, our Rule Book currently writes in a division of labour whereby the Party membership does the heavy lifting of campaigning whilst the Labour Group determines the manifesto (as if we allowed the PLP to determine the manifesto in a General Election!)

Clause Eight Part One of Chapter Thirteen of the Rule Book currently provides that; “The local government election campaign strategy shall be determined by the local Party, normally the Local Campaign Forum in consultation with the Labour Group. The Labour Group shall formulate election manifestos in consultation with the local Party and relevant CLPs.”

What we need is to write in a formal role for the Party, alongside the Group, in writing the local manifesto – not because we want such a formal meeting to have to take place and face the need to vote on differences, but because by writing the Rules this way we will aim to ensure a consensual approach to the writing of our manifesto in a local area which respects the role of the local Party (and ultimately – if agreement is not arrived at by consensus – we need a democratic process that doesn’t simply raise elected representatives above local Party members).

What I have suggested to the Democracy Review is what follows; 

Chapter 13 Clause VIII Part One should be amended to read as follows;

“The local government election campaign strategy shall be determined by the local Party, normally the Local Campaign Forum in consultation with the Labour Group. Election Manifestos shall be agreed, as far in advance of each election as is practicable and appropriate, at a joint meeting of the Local Campaign Forum (or equivalent) and the Labour Group, also including two additional representatives of each Constituency Labour Party within the relevant local authority area (to be nominated by the Executive of the CLP) and six additional representatives of affiliates (elected by and from delegates from affiliates to CLPs within the relevant local authority area). The joint meeting shall also define the attitude of the Party to the principal issues raised by the election which are not covered by the manifesto.”

This amendment – and you might be able to think of something better which you could submit online – would open up the process of writing local election manifestos to the wider Party. In a slow process of change Labour Councillors are accepting that the new, mass membership, socialist led, Labour Party is not the Party it was a few years ago and that professional politicians are not in charge (and never again will be).

Forward looking Labour Councillors are already preparing themselves for the collaborative future in which the Party and our elected representatives work together to advance socialist politics – and there is room in this future for all those who want to work together to achieve the socialist objectives of the Party.

Ahead of any rule changes which may or may not emerge from the Democracy Review, we can – and will – work together to develop local Labour manifestos which command the enthusiastic support of the Party’s mass membership – and in Brighton and Hove I am confident that we will now find a positive way forward. I wish luck to comrades elsewhere in the country seeking the same end.