This article examines the meaning of the word ‘contemporary’ as it refers to motions to Labour conference and publishes LLI’s template motion (below or overleaf) on green conversion. It also links to the National Policy Forum report for this year which was circulated on 8 August. Click here to read pdf.

In 2025, as in 2024 and indeed in all years except 2018-23 since conference motions were reinstated after Gordon Brown abolished them wholesale in 2007, Constituency Labour Party motions for Labour Party conference have to be “contemporary”.

What this means is slippery. In some of the Ed Miliband years, very many CLP motions were ruled out of order for breaching the “contemporary” rule. In 2015-7, many fewer were. In 2024, perhaps partly because CLPs had not yet got up to speed on the “contemporary” rule, unusually few motions were submitted, and it seems not a great number were ruled out under that “contemporary” rule.

Minimally, the “contemporary” rule means that motions must refer to events after a certain date. The annual National Policy Forum report was signed off by the Joint Policy Committee on 16 July 2025, and circulated 8 August, so we can assume 8 August is the cut-off. As well as putting motions, CLPs can also move “reference back” of sections of the NPF report, and that facility has been used well in some years, notably 2021.

As of now, the imperative for CLPs is to schedule meetings early in September, shortly before the 11 September motions deadline, so that they have the best chance of having a motion acceptable as “contemporary”.

Labour Left Internationalists is promoting a template motion about green conversion policy. We choose that because the issue is central to the future of humanity and to the question of whether economic life is to be guided by the predatory pursuit of profit, or by social provision based on social foresight. In 2024 there were relatively few “green” motions, and on the conference fringe the “green” agenda was dominated by fringe meetings sponsored by renewable-energy capitalists under the auspices of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association.

Each CLP can send in only one motion, but obviously we will also support texts we expect to see circulated by Labour Campaign for Council Housing, Momentum, Pride in Labour, Socialist Education Association, and Socialist Health Association, likely to cover housing, welfare benefits, trans rights, Israel-Palestine, and NHS. We will post those texts on this website as we get them.

The CLPs’ priority ballot can get six topics onto the conference agenda. The unions also choose six, and those may include some of those mentioned above.

Here is our template text. It is 231 words, and the Labour conference limit is 250 words. It deliberately takes as much wording as it can from the resolution passed by the TUC at its 2024 Congress. We will (or you can) update as new relevant post-8-August events come in.

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The fourth UK heat spike this year came from 11 August. These new heat spikes, and Trump’s new trashing of emissions policies in USA, show the rest of the world must speed up net-zero measures.

Alternative para: On 11 August it was revealed that the government is being sued in a “corporate court” after a proposal for a new coalmine in Cumbria was quashed by the High Court on “net zero” grounds. This shows the need for greater force behind net-zero plans.

Another alternative first para: Spain and many other countries saw huge heat waves in mid-August. These show the need to accelerate net-zero measures.

We welcome the government’s announcements of its Warm Homes Plan, of an onshore wind turbine strategy (4 July), of a “solar roadmap” (30 June), and of the launch of GB Energy (19 May).

We need a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels. The international Energy Agency (IEA) states that to stay below the Paris Climate Agreement of 1.5˚C, we must reduce fossil fuel use by 25 per cent this decade.

To achieve that, we need:

• Much more and quicker investment in ecological conversion;

• A halt to the rapid expansion of carbon emissions in aviation, and thus a halt to airport expansion, with investment instead in expanding rail and other public transport and making them available cheap or free.

The working class in the UK and globally are already being impacted by the consequences of climate change. Failing to take urgent measures puts jobs at risk from sudden climate events and their economic consequences.

We resolve to campaign for:

• negotiated transition plans that guarantee protection for all workers in all sectors of the economy

• public ownership of key sectors such as energy, water, transport, mail, broadband, education, health, and social care