All across the Labour movement
We’ve had some exciting developments for Labour supporters of electoral reform over the last few weeks, as the Labour for a New Democracy (L4ND) coalition continues to work all across the Labour movement.
In Llandudno, Welsh Labour conference showed Westminster the way: unanimously voting to push forward proposals for electoral reform of the Senedd, in a move that will make the Welsh Parliament bigger, stronger and more representative. The L4ND team spoke at a fringe hosted by Electoral Reform Society Cymru, whose expertise have informed the debate within Welsh Labour.
Meanwhile, eleven Labour Mayors signed Make Votes Matter’s open letter, pushing back against the government’s move to introduce First Past the Post for Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. The Mayors - including Andy Burnham, Tracy Brabin and Dan Jarvis - heavily criticised the move to “level down democracy” with neither proper consultation nor debate.
Over the last month, the L4ND team, together with members of the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform executive, have also run a stall at the Labour North conference in Newcastle, held a stall and fringe (with Politics for the Many) at Scottish Labour Conference in Glasgow, and run a virtual fringe event for the online Labour Women’s conference (with a video of the event available here).
And, with trade unions now key to securing the whole Labour movement’s support for electoral reform, we’ve seen new contributions to the discussion as members prepare for debate at their unions' annual conferences later this year.
See below for details of all these stories and more!
Now, with the pre-election period beginning, many of us will be focused on local election campaigning until May. Save the date for our campaign relaunch on Monday 9 May - co-hosted with LCER - when we’ll hear the latest on trade union policies - and our planned approach to Labour Conference 2022.
Until then, stay safe - and good luck with the campaigning!
With a strong mandate Labour now has a once in a generation change to deliver desperately needed Senedd Reform
By Jess Blair, ERS Crymu
Last weekend 500 people gathered in Llandudno for Welsh Labour conference – their first in-person gathering since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic. One of the first items on the agenda was a debate on Senedd electoral reform, discussing a Welsh Executive Committee report looking into options for moving forward on this issue…
Exclusive - Mayors tell the government: don't level down our democracy
By Make Votes Matter
On 17th March, mayors from across the country have written to the government to demand that they abandon plans to impose First Past the Post on their elections. The letter, whose signatories included Andy Burnham and Tracy Brabin, was sent as peers discuss these changes in the House of Lords…
Across the UK #Labour4PR
By Labour for a New Democracy
At Labour for a New Democracy we’ve been thrilled to have been out across the country in the last few months speaking to Labour members. Not only have we been speaking at CLPs, but we have been at Scottish, Welsh, Women’s and North Conferences where we’ve seen the massive support for #Labour4PR.
An amazing 331 Constituency Labour Parties have now voted in favour of Proportional Representation. Congrats and thank you to the latest three: Hartlepool, South Northamptonshire, and Great Yarmouth CLPs!
Proportional Representation for Westminster?
By Stephen Smellie (Unison NEC member)
There is a strong possibility that the Labour Party conference later this year will support the policy and trade unions and other organisations are debating this. My own union, UNISON, is likely to debate the issue at our National Delegate Conference in June…
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