2026 contemporary motion

Because the time has come for the Government to address our broken voting system - and start building consensus about what should replace it.

The Prime Minister and Parliamentary Labour Party - as well as the membership, Constituency Labour Parties, trade unions and annual conference - all support electoral reform.

Yet there is still an influential minority who want to keep First Past the Post: not by winning the argument, but by trying to delay, distract, and deprioritise.

Instead, we can rally the whole Labour movement behind this call for immediate action within the first 100 days of the new premiership. It starts with tabling this motion.

It was - but events have moved on.

We’re sorry for the change of plan, but until recently there was little to gain from returning to conference.

Now, it’s a major opportunity to get the Government’s work on electoral reform off to a strong start from a position of strength - but we must act now.

The Labour Party Conference overwhelmingly endorsed PR for general elections back in 2022 - and that decision stands.

This motion does not re-open the question of whether the Labour movement supports PR.

Instead, it calls for a specific first step: for the Government to establish a National Commission on Electoral Reform within Andy Burnham’s first 100 days.

There is consensus amongst campaigners, MPs and academics that the first step towards fair votes is an independent process - to review the options and choose the best voting system for the UK. That process is known as a ‘National Commission on Electoral Reform’.

A National Commission could take a variety of exact forms, but in all cases it would be independent, start from first principles, consult widely with experts and the public, and be time-limited - taking no more than twelve months. 

The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Fair Elections has produced a detailed Terms of Reference setting out one option for what a National Commission might look like.

You can find a suggested speaking note here (please note: we will shortly be updating this speaking note to make it more specific to the contemporary motion. we hope this version is of some use in the meantime!)

It’s important to remind your local party that fair votes has the strong support of the Labour movement, including annual conference, the membership, affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party, and the Prime Minister - as well as the public.

You should say why you believe Labour should take the first, vital step towards electoral reform - and why a National Commission is something the whole party can rally behind.

The key thing is not to delve into different systems, but focus on the principle of PR - and the principle of having an independent National Commission to carefully consider how elections should work in the UK.

It depends on the structure of your CLP - but it's a simple process either way.

If your CLP has an All Member Meeting (AMM) structure, simply email a copy of the motion to your CLP secretary asking for it to be discussed at your next meeting. If your CLP uses a General Committee (GC) structure, you'll need to send it to your branch secretary first.

You probably receive emails from both your CLP and/or branch secretary inviting you to meetings.

CLPs are supposed to submit their motion after 6 August (when National Policy Forum’s annual report was published) and the deadline at 17:00, Thursday 17 September. 

Contemporary motions are only accepted if they relate to matters not covered in the National Policy Forum report - so if your CLP selected its conference motion before 6 August there’s a high chance it could be ruled out of order.

Shockingly, in both 2024 and 2025, most motions sent by CLPs to conference were ruled out of order. 

If your CLP has decided, or plans to decide, on a conference motion outside of the 6 August - 17 September submission window, you may wish to raise this with your CLP secretary. Contact us if we can help.

Even if your CLP chooses a different subject as its conference motion, you should still table our motion for your CLP to pass in principle.

Doing so will give your CLP’s delegates a fresh mandate to prioritise PR in the ‘priorities ballot’ (which decides which issues will proceed to debate on the conference floor) and to speak and vote in favour of the motion.

We encourage you to change as little as possible - especially in the final ‘resolves’ paragraph.

As with so much in life, when it comes to conference motions our strength is in collective action. However sensible the tweaks or improvements you may make, we will collectively be in a stronger position if we have loads of identical motions, than if we have lots of different ones.

If you or your CLP members do have to make changes, please try and keep these to a minimum and avoid changing the substance of what we’re calling for.

Remember, there is a 250 word limit for motions. If you go over, your whole motion is ruled out of order.