By Bryn Talbot

The Guardian reports (15/2/26) that the Labour MP for Leeds East and secretary of the Campaign Group, Richard Burgon, has “helped to coordinate” a “Restore Labour democracy” statement signed by several trade union leaders. The statement is now online.

“Under Keir Starmer and Morgan McSweeney, there has been a clampdown on the democratic rights of Labour members.

“This has led to a small clique making out-of-touch decisions that have left the prime minister and the government deeply unpopular – from the mess over winter fuel payments to the appalling decision to make Peter Mandelson the US ambassador.

“We need an urgent end to this nasty factionalism coming from the top of the party where the views of Labour members and trade unionists are treated with contempt.

“Restoring democracy in the Labour party is essential if we are to reconnect with voters and prevent the election of a Trump-style Reform government.”

The Guardian further reports: “The general secretaries of Unison, Unite, the CWU, the FBU and Aslef, all Labour-affiliated unions, had signed the letter, as had the groups Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Momentum, the Labour Muslim Network, and Labour Assembly Against Austerity.

“Labour members and trade unionists will be able to add their names to the letter from 15 February.”

This is surely a useful move, though there is much more to the restoration of Labour democracy than this. That requires some changes in rules, such as:

• Increasing the number of policy debates at conference
• Reversing the gradual transformation of the NEC make-up so it has a clearer “lay” (union and CLP) majority (at present 22 out of 39, with three ex-officio members, three nominated by the Cabinet, etc.)
• Introducing a party discipline system at least in line with basic rules of justice (e.g. right to a hearing, and to a speedy hearing; an end to vague catch-all grounds for exclusion). Ending current bans and proscriptions.
• Repealing the “three year rule” on rule changes
• Reducing the prohibitively high quota of MP nominations for leader candidates
• Abolishing the NPF and making conference really sovereign

It also, and very immediately, requires changes in procedure or simply more assertiveness by CLPs and unions, such as:

• Opening nominations for leader candidates in all categories (unions, CLPs, MPs) simultaneously, rather than unions and CLPs having to wait and then only be able to name candidates with the MP-nomination quota
• Publication well in advance of conference of all conference motions, including those ruled out of order, and with information on grounds they were ruled out of order
• Measures to avoid the CAC arbitrarily grouping conference motions to avoid sharper ones being prioritised (as e.g. when it arbitrarily divided NHS motions into three separate groups, of which only the one with bland motions got prioritised)
• Full publication, on the Labour Party website, of all decisions of conference
• Much greater use by the CLPs of their right to challenge rulings-out and to propose reference-back of sections of the NPF report