Read online here

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Here are some quick personal comments from one LLI supporter. Probably they miss some important inclusions and omissions in the report, so please add further comments.

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The “final” National Policy Forum report going to Labour Party conference in Liverpool, 8-11 October 2023, is mostly 112 pages of warm words evading clear commitments.

The conference Delegates’ Briefing says that the usual facility to “refer back” items from the NPF report will not be available, because this is a “final” report and so there is nowhere to “refer back” to. The only ways to remonstrate will be to vote against sections of the report, and to pass motions stating clear commitments or contradicting the report.

The sharper language in the report is mostly about commitments to big business.

It is “non-negotiable”, the document says, that “Labour will not borrow to fund day-to-day spending, and we will reduce national debt as a share of the economy”. There will be “no return to freedom of movement”, i.e. immigrant workers will depend on employer goodwill for visas. “Labour will not return to the [EU] single market or customs union”.

The supposedly razor-sharp fiscal rules are fortunately not as sharp as they seem. The gist, however, is that the Labour leaders plan neither to raise taxes on the rich (bar closing the “non-domiciled” loophole and a couple of others – tax exemptions for private schools, “carried interest”) nor to raise borrowing to cover such tasks as restoring the NHS. And not to cut military spending, either. So, almost no cash for public services other than possible tax revenues from hoped-for “growth”.

The clearest things remaining are:

• ramp up public capital investment into the green economy to £28 billion a year in the second half of the Parliament at the latest

• more than double onshore wind capacity, triple solar capacity and quadruple offshore wind capacity

• upgrading every home that needs it to EPC (energy efficiency) standard C within a decade

• bring railways into public ownership as contracts with existing operators expire or are broken

• repeal the Trade Union Act 2016 and the Minimum Service law; allow electronic balloting for disputes.

There is a hint of legislation to decriminalise abortion, in presumably studiedly vague words: “Labour believes that abortion is an essential part of health care which is highly regulated and should not be subjected to custodial sanctions”.

For the NHS there is really only warm words. The document makes much of better preventive medicine, which could indeed reduce the burden on acute medical care, but scarcely promises new resources.

The document commits to a “Fair Pay Agreement in the adult social care sector, empowering workers and the trade unions that represent them to negotiate fair pay and conditions… underpinned by rights for trade unions to access workplaces”. (That is about all that remains of the talk of new legislation to force bosses into collective bargaining, touted as a better alternative to the policy repeatedly reaffirmed by Labour and TUC conferences, of repealing the Thatcher anti-union laws. The talk wasn’t good anyway: Australia has laws forcing employers to negotiate with unions, but also anti-strike laws sharper than the UK’s, so union density has fallen to 12%).

Beyond that, the talk of a National Care Service lacks specifics.

Many of the items from New Deal for Working People now have softer language. The document does promise “basic individual rights from day one for all workers”, but only to “strengthenmove towards a single status of worker” (covering gig-economy people), to “ban exploitative zero hours contracts”. It does talk of “ensuring everyone has the right to a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work, based on a twelve-week reference period”.

In a welcome specific, presumably a sop to the GMB union, the document promises a review into the jailing of Cammell Laird workers (after the 1984 shipyard occupation in which Lol Duffy, a longstanding Marxist and Labour candidate in Wallasey in 1987, played a big part).

Supposedly “Labour will reform the water industry so that it delivers for consumers and the natural environment by using regulatory powers”. No comment to take utilities, or Royal Mail, back into public ownership, let alone to take the whole energy industry (extraction, generation, wholesale, retail) into public ownership to enable planning and to harness for social spending the ultra-profits made by better-placed energy companies from recent retail price rises.

Instead of committing to repeal the Illegal Migration Act, the Police Act, and the Public Order Act, the document notes only that “measures in the Public Order Act like suspicionless stop and search and the offence of being equipped to lock on and argued they should be removed by the government. In government, Labour would seek to change these provisions”. Only “seek to”?

There is a heading in the document about “legal routes” for asylum-seekers, but under that heading no indication of how those “legal routes” for reaching the UK will be established. Mostly, the document just promises to process asylum applications faster.

The document promises “the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation”, but without specifics. It notes that councils have been crushed by Tory cuts, but promises only that “as Labour grows our economy and improves our public finances, we will ensure that councils are enabled”.

Nothing much beyond warm words is offered on benefits. Outside the document, Labour leaders have said that they plan to continue the Tory two-child benefit cap which they previously denounced.

Instead of pledging to end the “Right to Buy” scam which is still depleting council housing faster than new units are built, the document says “Labour will seek to decrease the number of social homes being rapidly sold off through right to buy without like-for-like new social housing being built to replace them”.

The document promises (as the Tories have already promised) to “abolish ‘no fault’ Section 21 evictions” of private renters, and a “Renter’s Charter”, but drops previous talk of legally limiting rent rises.

It says that “Labour has defended the triple lock [on pensions] when the Conservatives have sought to break their promises”, but since the document was published Labour leaders have made clear that they make no commitment to stick by the triple lock either.

The document promises to “end discrimination against trans people, non-binary and gender diverse people, and ensure they are treated with respect and dignity in society” and says that “the current process of gender recognition is intrusive, outdated, and humiliating”, but follows up with nothing more specific than that Labour will “modernise, simplify and reform the gender recognition law”. That replaces previous talk of gender recognition by “self-identification” (as already in place in eleven countries in Europe, and in Argentina, Colombia, etc., without bad results), and Labour leaders have indicated a process involving only one doctor instead of two.

The document says nothing about transgender health care, where provision is thin and waiting lists are enormous and getting longer.

The document promises to “end the system of headline grades” from Ofsted, but not to return academies and free schools to democratic local authority control, nor to reverse cuts, nor to end the destructive “exam factory” orientation of schooling.

It says “Labour will fix the current broken tuition fees and loans structure”, but nothing is clear here except that we know from other sources that the Labour leaders intend to scrap Labour’s previous commitment to abolish tuition fees.

In 2021 Labour conference voted to “refer back” a section of the NPF report because the document said nothing about neurodiversity. This final text still says nothing, not even vague warm words.

There are warm words about adopting the “social model” rather than the “medical model” of disability, but neurodiversity is not disability.

You may want to consider this amended version of the Labour Green New Deal model motion, which adds in references to the plans for new oil and gas development in the North Sea. (Some other wording has been pruned to keep the whole text within the 250 word limit).

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Notes

· Labour’s plan for Great British Energy (GBE): a public company investing in clean energy generation to de-risk and crowd-in private finance

· The rate of return on oil and gas (10-15%) exceeds renewables (4-8%)

· In 2022, only 5% of oil and gas company capital expenditure went to renewables

· Fossil fuel companies make record profits while they exacerbate the climate crisis

· The public strongly back public ownership of energy (66%)

Believes:

· Privatisation is a massive barrier to a rapid energy transition and decarbonisation, with investment directed towards highly profitable fossil fuels

· Public ownership of the energy system would maximise energy security and reduce energy prices

· Workers and communities must be involved in developing energy transition plans.

Resolves to support:

Democratic public ownership of the whole energy system, including:

· Nationalisation of energy transmission and distribution; energy supply; the UK operations and infrastructure of fossil fuel companies.

· Creating a National Energy Agency to set standards and targets; own industries of national importance (e.g., oil and gas, offshore wind, nuclear); coordinate energy transition, including workforce planning.

· Creating Public Energy Agencies to own, invest in, and operate distribution networks; decarbonise heat and electricity; supply energy to households.

· Capitalising GBE to completely supplant the private energy sector.

· Block new oil and gas development in the North Sea, with a workers’ transition plan creating good new jobs such as sketched in the ‘Our Power’ report.

· Cancel new oil and gas development licences handed out by the Tory regime in its dying days.

This CLP

Believes that the two child limit unfairly penalises children for the size of the families into which they are born, something which is no fault of their own.

Notes that maintaining the two child limit is estimated by the Child Poverty Action Group to be responsible for keeping 250,000 children below the poverty line.

Believes that the two child limit is discriminatory towards members of minority ethnic and faith groups who traditionally have large family sizes, and is damaging to the financial position of women (including single mothers) who have been pressured into having more than two children.

Agrees with the Deputy Leader of the Party Angela Rayner when she called the two child limit “obscene” and the Shadow DWP Secretary Jon Ashworth when he referred to it as “heinous”.

Is appalled by the announcement by Sir Keir Starmer that Labour would retain the two child limit in any reform of the welfare system on the grounds of “affordability” and “fiscal credibility”, and notes that it is estimated that this would push 250,000 children into poverty.

Observes that this policy announcement was made without reference to previous decisions of Annual Conference and in anticipation of the National Policy Forum meeting.

And therefore calls on Sir Keir Starmer to reverse this ludicrous and damaging position, and instead to develop tax policies which raise revenue from those most able to afford it, and reiterate Labour’s unequivocal commitment to scrapping the two child limit and ending child poverty in the UK.

Template ordinary motion on Labour Party bans, referring to the Neal Lawson case

Template motion for Labour Party conference on Brexit. (Deadline for CLP motions to conference is 21 September, but many CLPs are deciding motions in July. Conference is 8-11 October in Liverpool)

Template motion for Labour Party conference on the right to strike

Template motion on abortion rights for Labour Party women’s conference, based on text passed by Heeley CLP in June 2023 but abbreviated for the 250-word limit for motions to conference. (Motions for women’s conference are decided by Women’s Branches, if formally constituted, and by CLPs if not. The deadline is 14 September. Women’s conference is 7 October in Liverpool)

Labour Campaign for Free Movement template motion, and a long list of template motions from Momentum, including a curtailed version of that LCFM text. See below for more on this.

Labour Campaign for Council Housing template motion

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The following version of the LCFM template motion has been submitted by Oldham East CLP. We understand something similar has been submitted by Southampton Test CLP. It will be very useful in compositing if a CLP submits the full version of the LCFM template motion, including the final line stating the principle of free movement.

‘Towards a humane and internationalist immigration policy’

Conference calls for safe asylum routes for those fleeing war and all other plights covered by our responsibilities under the 1951 Refugee Convention.

The government’s inhumane immigration policy is illustrated by its betrayal of Afghan refugees, Windrush scandal victims, and everyone crossing the Channel; its legislative assault on the right to seek asylum; and the brutal Rwandan deportation scheme.

Restricting migrant workers’ rights and making them precarious undermines all workers’ power to push back against exploitation together.

Conference applauds PCS trade unionists, whose strike threats and legal action defeated maritime “pushback” plans.

Labour will commit in power, and campaign in opposition and at the grassroots, to:

1. repeal the Nationality and Borders Act, Illegal Migration Bill and anti-migrant legislation;
2. reject immigration systems based on numerical caps, minimum income/wealth requirements, or utility to employers;
3. ensure safe, legal routes for asylum seekers, day-one rights to work, education and social security, and expand family reunion rights;
4. abolish “no recourse to public funds”, NHS charges & restrictions, and all Hostile Environment policies;
5. introduce a simple process for all UK residents to gain permanent residency;
6. grant equal voting rights for all with leave to remain;
7. close all immigration detention centres;
8. support workers refusing to implement deportations, Hostile Environment measures and pushbacks;
9. re-enter Europe’s free movement area, and pursue free movement agreements with other countries, including in future trade deals, with the goal of equal free movement for all.

Comrades may find the following wording useful as a basis.

We regret the March 2019 ruling which debars CLP motions on individual disciplinary cases, such as the threat to exclude Neal Lawson, or before that the exclusions from the Labour Party of Andrea Egan, then president of Unison, and Martin Mayer, a former representative of Unite on the Labour NEC. We note the following comment by Jon Cruddas MP: “the most rightwing, illiberal faction in the party has been handed control to decide who is and is not a member. They are settling scores and are clearly embarked on a witch-hunt – not just of the Corbynite left but of mainstream democrats within the party”.

We make the following general points:

We:

• believe that exclusions for actions that were within Labour Party rules at the time they were carried out (e.g. “shares” on social media for items from groups later banned) to be contrary to natural justice

• call on the National Executive to rescind the bans imposed on Workers’ Liberty and Socialist Appeal

• declare that Labour Party will be better able to defeat the Tories if we organise as a broad party with a range of views, with disciplinary action only after due process and for specific harmful actions.

This branch notes:

The extreme repression used by the Iranian regime in the aftermath of the murder of Mahsa Jina Amini by the so-called Morality police in September 2022.

At least 537 people have been killed, over 20,000 arrested, and 7 executed during the women-led mass protests against the compulsory hijab law in Iran. Demonstrators have demanded “Women, Life, Freedom.”

Women are heavily discriminated against in employment, custody rights, education and inheritance. The legal age for marriage, for girls, is 13.

This branch further notes:

That union organisation and the right to strike in Iran are effectively banned. There is no freedom of association or free elections. National minorities (Kurds, Arabs, Baluchis) are heavily repressed.

Currently a trial of eight teacher trade unionists is proceeding in Shiraz. The teachers are accused of campaigning for better pay and conditions.

Inflation in Iran is currently running at over 50%. The real unemployment rate has probably been over 10% for the last ten years. The majority of workers do not have permanent contracts

Despite the repression against the labour movement strikes and workers’ protests continue. Recently a mass strike of contract workers in the petro-chemical industry took place demanding massive pay rises.

This branch demands:

The release of Sepideh Gholian, a 28-year-old labour rights activist who was rearrested after being freed from prison in March 2023. Sepideh had spent four years and two months in jail for backing a sugar cane workers’ union protest. In jail she was tortured.

Immediately on her release from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, Sepideh, without a headscarf and while being filmed, began chanting for the downfall of the regime. She was rearrested and has now been jailed for an extra two years.

There are at least 1,100 political prisoners in Iran, and probably many more. We demand the release of all political prisoners in Iran.

This branch agrees:

To write to the Iranian authorities and demand the release of Sepideh Gholian.

To affiliate to the Solidarity With the Iranian Workers movement (SWIW), founded by Labour MP John McDonnell, and Iranian activists in 2022.

The text as passed as Heeley CLP is below, and a shortened version (short enough to be within the 250-word limit for Labour conference and women’s conference motions) is below

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This CLP notes: 

1. On 12^th June a 44-year-old woman was sentenced to over two years in prison for procuring pills to induce an abortion outside the legal time limit. 
2. According to Abortion Rights UK there has been an increase in women in England being prosecuted in relation to pregnancy terminations. 
3. These prosecutions are possible because the 1967 Abortion Act did not decriminalise abortion, but rather made it permissible on certain conditions.  The Offences against the Person Act 1861 which made abortion a criminal offence is still on the statute book.
4. Since this case there have been calls for legislative change, meaning that abortion rights may be an issue in parliament in the coming period.

This CLP believes:

1. Dealing with abortion within criminal law restricts and stigmatises both those who request an abortion and the healthcare professionals who provide that care.
2. In addition, policy barriers to safe abortion include underfunded services, the requirement in legislation that approval must be given by other people or institutions, limits on when during pregnancy an abortion can take place.  
3. Social reasons for women delaying seeking services include lack of recognition of pregnancy, family or relationship breakdown, domestic violence, sexual assault or rape, or denial of pregnancy due to social fears.  Later abortion disproportionately involves teenage or vulnerable women.
4. Such barriers can lead to critical delays in accessing treatment and increase risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatisation, and health complications.

This CLP further believes.

1. Nobody should face prison for a decision about their own body and health care.
2. Abortion should be considered as a healthcare procedure.
3. Medical and legal frameworks should trust women to make responsible decisions.
4. Abortion should be available on demand as early as possible and as late as necessary.

It is vital that Labour collectively support progressive legislative change, including decriminalisation as pledged in our 2019 manifesto, and reform to allow women and pregnant people to control their own bodies. 

This CLP agrees to:

• Campaign for decriminalisation of abortion provision;
• Publicise the protest on Saturday 24/06 at 12noon in Barkers Pool, Sheffield to members;
• Invite a speaker from Abortion Rights UK to a future CLP meeting;
• Send this motion to the NEC;
• Urge our MP to take up these issues in Parliament.

(The passage in italics above about the 2019 manifesto is an addition to the Heeley draft)

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248-words version

We note:

On 12 June a woman was sentenced to over two years in prison for procuring pills to induce an abortion outside the legal time limit.

Such prosecutions are possible because the 1967 Abortion Act did not decriminalise abortion, but rather made it permissible on certain conditions.  The Offences against the Person Act 1861 which made abortion a criminal offence is still on the statute book.

We believe:

Dealing with abortion within criminal law restricts and stigmatises both those who request an abortion and the healthcare professionals who provide that care.

• In addition, policy barriers to safe abortion include underfunded services, the requirement in legislation that approval must be given by other people or institutions, limits on when during pregnancy an abortion can take place.

• Social reasons for women delaying seeking services include lack of recognition of pregnancy, family or relationship breakdown, domestic violence, sexual assault or rape, or denial of pregnancy due to social fears. Later abortion disproportionately involves teenage or vulnerable women.

• Such barriers can lead to critical delays in accessing treatment and increase risk of unsafe abortion, stigmatisation, and health complications.

We further believe:

• Nobody should face prison for a decision about their own body and health care.

• Abortion should be considered as a healthcare procedure.

• Abortion should be available on demand as early as possible and as late as necessary.

We call on Labour to commit to:

Decriminalisation of abortion provision, as pledged in our 2019 manifesto.

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Note: The Guardian reported https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/17/case-uk-woman-jailed-late-abortion-difficult-both-sides that “sources said that Starmer told Labour MPs during a closed-doors meeting this week that he had never backed decriminalisation of abortion”. He certainly voted for it in Northern Ireland on 9 July 2019 (and the amendment won), but… Many Labour right-wingers like Stella Creasy are still vocal for decriminalisation, so it should be possible to win wide support on this.

Thanks to the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy for the information below.

Annual Conference and Annual Women’s Conference:
The deadline for the election of delegates, nominations for internal elections and submission of rule changes is noon on Friday 23 June.

So now is the time to ensure your CLP makes the appropriate preparations for this year’s conferences. Information from the party can be found here about the Annual Conference and here about the Annual Women’s Conference.

Priority issues for supporters of party democracy are:

1. Nominations
2. Election of delegates
3. Rule Changes
4. Motions

1) Nominate grassroots centre-left candidates for internal elections

CLPD and other groups in the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA) are supporting the candidates below. The deadline for CLPs to submit their nominations for the three committees below is noon on Friday 23 June.

Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC)

Candidate	CLP	Membership Number
Jean Crocker	Gateshead	L1306356
Chris Saltmarsh	Sheffield Central	L1180242

National Constitutional Committee (NCC)

Candidate	CLP	Membership Number
Jabran Hussain	Bradford West	L0058388
Dave Levy	Lewisham Deptford	A006829
Marion Roberts	Camberwell and Peckham	A009691
Harry Stratton	Bethnal Green and Bow	L1764378

National Women’s Committee (NWC)

Candidate CLP Membership No. Zoe Allan Brecon & Radnorshire L1393044 Claudia Boes Cardiff West L1318806 Chloe Hopkins North Tyneside L1492882 Juliet Miller South West Hertfordshire L1636941 Helen Smith Tynemouth L1164590 Cecile Wright Derby North A481880

To assist with making nominations at CLP meetings, the statements of all the above candidates can be downloaded as a PDF here and as a MS Word document here.

Please note that NWC nominations should be made by Women’s Branches where such branches exist, otherwise they can be made by the CLP.

The elections for the CAC and NCC will take place at the Party’s Annual Conference (8 – 11 October) and the elections for the NWC will take place at the Party’s National Women’s Conference (7 October).

2) Elect delegates who support party democracy

The Annual Conferences provide opportunities to contest the current offensive taking place against party democracy. A number of important votes will be taking place at the Annual and Women’s Conferences.
As many CLPs as possible need to send delegates who will vote in support of party democracy.
Please note that delegates for the Women’s Conference should be elected by Women’s Branches where such branches exist, otherwise they are elected by the CLP.
The deadline for the election of delegates is noon on Friday 23 June.

3) Rule changes

CLPs are encouraged to consider submitting a rule change proposal to this year’s Annual Conference. The deadline for CLPs to submit a rule change is 12 noon Friday 23 June.

CLPD’s recommended rule changes for consideration can be downloaded as a PDF here and as a MS Word document here.