We call for the restoration of the Labour whip to all the seven MPs suspended for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, and oppose withdrawal of the whip from any of the ten MPs who voted for WASPI compensation. We note that under the New Labour government, despite widespread complaints in the labour movement of “control-freakery”, there was no such disciplinary action for MPs voting contrary to government policy, for example on the invasion of Iraq.

The motion below has been passed by a branch to go to Garston CLP.
This CLP requests that the Government complies with the Ombudsman’s recommendation to authorise compensation payments for WASPI Women affected by the DWP’s failure to adequately notify them that the State Pension Age had increased.
Given that the Party leadership backed the Women Against State Pension lnequality campaign when in opposition, to deny these women justice now is very disappointing. If not rectified, it will have inevitable damaging consequences for the Party’s re-election prospects.”

The Labour Campaign for Council Housing has circulated this template motion for discussions in the run-up to the next Spending Review.

Click to access model-resolution-2025.pdf

With waiting lists for a first appointment with a gender service for under 18s already over 5 years, evidence is mounting about the serious harm this is causing. Ultimately, families have been forced into the private sector due to these long waits and the serious concerns about the unethical nature of the proposed research trial into the use of puberty blockers Labour needs a Health Secretary prepared to tackle this crisis in a way that puts the evidence first, and crucially, puts the wellbeing of trans young people first…

Sign the appeal from Labour For Trans Rights and Momentum here. Closing date 6 January 2025.

Template text to be adapted, for example for regional Labour conferences in early 2025

We welcome the Budget’s allocation of £1.3 billion extra funding for local government for 2025-6, but note evidence from the Local Government Association that this amount will in some areas not even keep pace with increased pressures from councils’ statutory duties, and will not enable rebuilding of council services lost since 2010.

We call on the government rapidly to restore the cuts in local government funding since 2010.

Also, to fund a much increased programme of funding councils to build new council housing and to buy out and and adapt underused properties; to increase the Local Housing Allowance and give councils full reimbursement for temporary housing of the homeless.

Also, to move fast towards a National Care Service, with central funding which guarantees prompt and available care with staff on pay and conditions comparable to the NHS.

We call on council Labour groups and all local Labour Parties to campaign actively, including by street demonstrations, rallies, etc., for these measures; and to work with local government unions on this.

In the interim, by the use of reserves or by other tactics, to refuse to make further cuts. (187 words)

Notes

• The Local Government Association said the £1.3 billion will only “help meet some – but not all – of the significant pressures in adult and children’s social care and homelessness support”.

• The increase in employers’ NI, if not compensated for in the December settlement for local authority funding, will cost council £1.2 billion or more.

• After big cuts, year after year, in funding from central government, many councils are overwhelmed by their statutory duties for social care.

• Many are also overwhelmed by their statutory duties for housing the homeless. Numbers in temporary housing have risen 90% over the last decade, and reimbursement from central government to council for the costs has been pared back.

• Councils are also short of money to meet their obligations for SEND provision.

• Under these pressures, non-statutory council work – libraries, children’s centres, youth clubs – has withered.

Labour councils’ campaign briefing from 2019

Click to access breaking-point-campaign-briefing.pdf

Template motion from Workers Against the CCP

Motion: Free the Hong Kong 45!

This branch notes:

1. On 19 November, 45 defendants in the trial of the Hong Kong 47 democratic activists were sentenced to years in prison. Among them: 6 years 9 months for socialist former opposition lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, and nurse and former trade union leader Winnie Yu; and 4 years 5 months for aviation worker and trade union leader Carol Ng.
2. They were convicted under the tyrannical “National Security Law” simply for organising to stand for election as pro-democracy candidates and oppose their authoritarian government.
3. Other political prisoners in Hong Kong include former General Secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) Lee Cheuk-yan, imprisoned for “unauthorised protests” and also awaiting trial for “subversion”.
4. More than 200 trade unions, including those previously led by Lee, Yu and Ng, have been forced to disband under government pressure since the implementation of National Security Law. Independent trade unions are illegal in mainland China: only the government-controlled ACFTU is allowed.
5. 13 overseas Hong Kong democracy and labour activists were issued arrest warrants with bounties by the Hong Kong National Security Police. Six of them live in the UK in exile, including HKCTU’s former chief executive Christopher Mung.
6. A trade unionists’ protest was organised by Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor and Workers Against the CCP at the Chinese Embassy on 30 November, demanding freedom for the Hong Kong 47 and other political prisoners.

This branch resolves:

1. To call for:

   1. Free Carol Ng, Winnie Yu, Leung Kwok-hung and all the HK45 – quash their convictions.

   2. Free Lee Cheuk-yan, Chow Hang-tung and all Hongkongers repressed for pro-worker and pro-democracy activity.

   3. Free political prisoners in mainland China including feminist Huang Xueqin, workers’ rights activist Wang Jianbing, civil rights activist Xu Zhiyong and Uyghur intellectuals Rahile Dawut, Ilham Tohti and Perhat Tursun.

   4. Freedom to organise independent trade unions and political opposition in Hong Kong & China.

   5. Stop all forms of transnational repression.

2. To write to the Embassy of China and the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London with these demands.

3. To contact Hong Kong Labour Rights Monitor and Workers Against the CCP in order to keep in touch and support future solidarity protests for these political prisoners in future.

4. To send this motion to our union’s regional council.

Conference notes the government’s commitment, outlined in the King’s Speech on 17 July, to introduce a Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill; a Migration Advisory Committee report on 16 July which highlighted exploitation of Seasonal Workers; and reports on 15 July of protests by refugees living on the Bibby Stockholm. The Tories gave the UK an inhumane, regressive border regime, seeking to scapegoat migrants for the misery caused by austerity and deregulation. Restricting migrant rights makes people more precarious, undermining all workers’ power to push back against exploitation.

The 2023 NPF report commits Labour to conduct “a full review of the “hostile environment”. In reviewing the Hostile Environment, Labour must begin by reversing the legacy of Tory cruelty. This means going further than the King’s Speech.

Before conference 2025, Labour will:

• repeal the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024, Illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and Immigration Acts 2014 and 2016
• guarantee safe and legal routes for asylum seekers
• give asylum seekers day-one rights to work, education, social security and family reunion
• abolish “no recourse to public funds” and NHS charges

Before the next general election, Labour will:

• level up domestic workers’ rights
• grant all UK residents equal voting rights
• end immigration raids, detention and deportations
• introduce a simple process for all residents to gain permanent residency
• end “double sentencing”
• pursue agreements with other countries giving rights to travel, live, work and study without a visa

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The motion above was submitted to Labour conference 2024 but ruled out of order under the notoriously slippery rule that motions must not be on more than one topic. Very similar motions have reached the agenda in many years previously.

A right-wing motion on asylum and migration was put on the agenda, but withdrawn on conference floor, because it had become almost certain that it would be voted down.

CLPs and unions passing motions now can send the government an explicit message about the demands of the labour movement which conference was unable to send.

If your CLP or union branch prefers shorter text, you may find this abridgement used in Islington South CLP useful.

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We note with dismay Keir Starmer’s praise for the new asylum policy of the far-right Italian government.

The 2023 National Policy Forum report commits Labour to conduct “a full review of the “hostile environment”. In reviewing the Hostile Environment, Labour must begin by reversing the legacy of Tory cruelty.

We call for the Labour government to:

• repeal the Safety of Rwanda Act 2024, Illegal Migration Act 2023, Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and Immigration Acts 2014 and 2016
• create safe and legal routes for asylum seekers
• give asylum seekers day-one rights to work, education, social security and family reunion
• abolish “no recourse to public funds” and NHS charges
• end immigration raids, detention and deportations
• pursue agreements with other countries giving rights to travel, live, work and study without a visa

A personal view…

Labour cabinet ministers, let alone ordinary Labour MPs, complain that they can’t get to talk with Rachel Reeves about the 30 October Budget.

Continue reading “Budget: no to cuts, yes to taxing the rich!” →