Labour Party supporters were shocked and angered at reports in the Guardian of 6 February about a Facebook group called UK Migration Updates that claims it is run by Yorkshire and Humber Labour Party but was using Reform colours and linking to right-wing content from GB News and the Telegraph.

On the other side, we have new pressure from Lord Maurice Glasman’s “Blue Labour”. Glasman accepted a personal invite from Donald Trump for Trump’s inauguration, and was the only Labour figure there. In an interview with currently-out-of-favour Trumpist Steve Bannon Glasman hailed the inauguration as ‘an incredibly important day”, called “progressive” thinking “woke capitalism, and denounced it as a cancer in the Labour Party. Glasman says that “the only place to build a house now is on the left side of MAGA square”.

Glasman is not in Starmer’s inner circle – he denounces Rachel Reeves – but he claims that Starmer’s Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney “is one of ours, we love him”. Dan Carden, a formerly Corbynite Labour MP who resigned from the front bench to back a ceasefire in Gaza, has started a Blue Labour group of MPs.

Glasman started Blue Labour in 2009, but retreated after outcry over his 2011 call for English Defence League people to be drawn into the Labour Party.
Only through inactivity by the “progressive” majority can screwball racists take hold of sections of the Labour Party.

We need to campaign for democracy in the labour movement. For the removal of the Labour whip from Glasman (he sits in the House of Lords). And for unions to campaign on the policies of supporting refugees which most of them have.

Islington South CLP passed this motion on 19 February 2025.

We call on Wes Streeting as Health Secretary to withdraw his support for the ban on puberty blockers for trans young people.

As on many medical questions, randomised controlled trials are impractical and unethical here. But puberty blockers have been in use for many years now, and international evidence shows that puberty suppressing hormones are a safe and effective way to temporarily pause a young person’s puberty, giving them time to consider their options for transition.

Rather than honouring Labour’s manifesto commitment to “remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance”, the ban strips trans young people of their bodily autonomy, undermining important medical principles, such as Gillick Competence, in favour of upholding the Conservative approach of politicising the lives of trans people.

The Cass Review did not go so far as to recommend a ban on puberty blockers for trans young people.

Also, the CLP’s LGBT Forum invited Pride in Labour to speak at a Forum meeting on 26/2/25.

Resources at https://transcend.org.au/resources/evidence/ may be useful for debate in other CLPs, especially https://transcend.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Transcend_AusPATH_Pubert-blockers-evidence-brief_2024.pdf

We call on the Labour Party leadership to reverse its decision to authorise the building of a third runway at Heathrow airport and not to authorise any further airport expansion. We call for public investment instead in improved rail services.

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