Full NEC Meeting 24th January 2018 Leaders Report Jeremy expressed his disappointment in the lack of BAME candidates that have been selected by the party so far in early selection seats. Keith Vaz expressed his worry about this during the last meeting and along with BAME Labour is looking into how we can mediate this potentially through mechanisms such as all BAME shortlists. On the recent reports of deselections Jeremy stated the story in the Sunday Times was nonsensical and wrong. This is welcomed as we must be focusing on winning the next general election with so much at stake. Before walking into the NEC meeting we were met with protestors outside the building shouting “get the Tories out of Southside” - I asked Jeremy if he would condemn the treatment of our staff in this way which I know he has done before. It is completely unacceptable that abuse of Labour Party staff is becoming normalized and it is important that the leadership of the party look at how we fix this increasing issue. Jeremy has taken a hard line on the government awarding contracts of almost £2bn to Carillion despite the company being in financial trouble. He said he will continue to press the government on this in the coming weeks to hold them to account. Report by Jonathan Ashworth Shadow Health Secretary Jonathon Ashworth came to report to the NEC on the ongoing NHS crisis. A year ago he came to the NEC to highlight the 2016 winter crisis and was sad to say things have not improved. Jon read out some shocking statistics which highlight the seriousness of the crisis such as bed occupancy being at 93% and remaining at dangerously high levels. Or the fact that 24,000 people waited in the back of an ambulance for over an hour during the Winter. The report reminded us all of the importance of holding the Tories to account on their mistreatment of the NHS and how Jon and the team are working to do that. Local Government Report Nick Forbes (LG rep) discussed the issues surrounding Haringey council’s HDV plan. The NEC voted unanimously to mediate with Haringey council to discuss the issues surrounding the plan. This was an incredibly difficult position and although I was not 100% comfortable voting with intervention of any sort, an amendment that was made to the original proposal was the best outcome we were going to achieve. I am completely against the NEC intervening in the affairs of locally elected cllrs and completely support Nick in his plight to sort this issue out. For more information, check out this article. General Secretary Report Action Saturdays are being organized for the next few months in the lead up to the local elections. The aim of these days are going to change slightly and we will now be focusing on building up our volunteer capacity. It was great to hear that new members are coming along and feeling like they’ve had a positive experience. We have 1800 signed up to our next campaign day so far. We still have a membership of over 500,000, which is great to hear. Alyn and Deeside by-election I have been over to Alyn and Deeside campaigning this month in the by-election for Jack Sargent. It’s been great to see so many members get out on the doorstep for Jack, January by-elections are also the toughest but the effort has been fantastic. Polling day is Tuesday 6th February, I will be heading over so please do join us if you can spare an hour! Labour Students National Committee I called into a Labour Students National Committee meeting. We discussed the upcoming Labour Students conference and voted on whether this should be a delegate system or an OMOV system (which would delay the election by months). The committee voted with the delegate system. The election will take place on 3rd March I would encourage members to put themselves forward for the committee positions! Trip to Israel and Palestine I was recently lucky enough to go on a trip to Israel and Palestine with the Union of Jewish Students. It was genuinely one of the most incredible and informative trips I’ve ever been on. During the week we spent time in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Ramallah and on the Lebanese and Syrian borders. One thing that struck me most from the trip is that the complexities of the conflict are further away from being solved than ever before. We met Palestinian political activists who expressed fears that for children growing up there the conflict will become normal and there will never be a resolution. It made it even more clear to me that we must steer away from the BDS movement as boycotts only serve to create further divisions. The conflict can only be improved with positive engagement between Israelis and Palestinians, not by boycotting just one side. Trips like this are vital for ensuring leaders across political parties are educated on the complexities of the conflict, rather than the current level of debate which leads to the marginalisation of Jewish people. Sweeping generalisations and campaigning for boycotts only serve to create further division. Thank you so much to UJS for giving me this opportunity and I’m looking forward to finding ways to support positive engagement on this issue in the Labour Party. If you have any questions about anything in this report please do send me an email: [email protected] Jasmin
0 Comments
Our NEC Away day this year was held in Glasgow. The night before the meeting the NEC heard from newly elected Scottish Labour Leader Richard Leonard, Jeremy Corbyn and Iain McNicol on the year ahead. The meeting was split into two parts, firstly we had a joint meeting with the Scottish Executive Committee before our NEC away day. Leader’s Report Jeremy and the Scottish General Secretary reported on the recent leadership results and thanked both Richard Leonard and Anas Sanwar for the way in which they conducted their campaigns. Jeremy updated the NEC on the democracy review stating he is keen for all members to be involved. The review will be held across 2018 and will be completed in phases with the first phase due to be finished by January. Finally, Jeremy talked about Labour’s position on Brexit stating that we respect the result of the referendum but we must now fight for the best deal which the Tories are struggling with. He believes that maintaining good relationships with Europe is the most important thing even when we are not officially part of the EU. Scottish Labour Leader's Report Richard Leonard addressed the NEC and SEC to speak about the importance of winning back seats in Scotland. Richard is keen to get started quickly to challenge Tory and SNP austerity whilst prioritising the mobilisation of members. Decision on the NEC Youth Representative Elections I was incredibly disappointed with how this part of the meeting was conducted. Without official consultation with members or key stakeholders it was decided that the electoral college that elects the NEC Youth Representative would be changed. The student section will be removed and the electoral college will now be 50% OMOV for the young members’ section and a 50% affiliate block vote. The idea that 100,000 members get a vote in the young members’ section is fantastic and will increase engagement in our regions and nations. However young members will have only half of the votes in deciding who their ONLY representative is on a 39 person body. Individual young members were promised to have their voices heard in the democracy review but they have been side-lined. I was told a paper would be brought to the NEC in January so I had planned to spend the next two months consulting members on this important issue. Unfortunately, after a brief discussion, the NEC rushed to a vote and with that disregarded the voices of individual members. I pushed for the change to be postponed until members were given a chance to have their say but I was denied this. To all members feeling disillusioned by this decision I am truly sorry. I fought hard to get the NEC to listen to your voices before making this decision. I know many are just as angry as I am about the rushed and shoddy changes in this election without consultation. Despite this I’ll continue to push to ensure members are able to get involved in these elections and fight for you to have your voices heard for as long as I sit on the NEC. Membership The General Secretary gave a membership update; we now have 570,000 members across the country. This growth has been spread out across marginal and Labour held constituencies. Labour has improved its gender balance with this growth in membership over the past few years which is a step in the right direction! Early selection seats We are currently selecting candidates in marginal seats in England and Wales whilst selections in Scotland are to begin soon. These early selection seats should have candidates in place by Spring 2018. Once candidates are in place campaigning and planning can begin to give us the best chance at forming a government in the next general election. It is important to remember that although a general election is more likely to come sooner due to the instability of the current government it could last a full term. We are therefore now looking at ways to support candidates who could be in place for over 4 years. Sexual Harassment We are a party of over 500,000 members so it is crucial our party is safe for everyone. The new sexual harassment policy can be found here. Since October we have seen numerous members coming forward. In light of this I thought it was important that we reacted quickly to ensure we were taking steps to tackle this huge issue. After receiving many emails from members I sent a letter to the NEC and Jeremy Corbyn to push for an independent investigation into these cases and to relook at how we tackle sexual harassment in our party. We need an independent body away from the party to ensure members feel able to come forward. I will continue to push for this in the coming months. Since then a hotline has been launched for members to call should they experience sexual harassment: 07595432542 – all incidents will be treated with confidentially or you can contact: [email protected]. Labour Students Political Weekend I gave a speech to welcome members to Liverpool at Political Weekend. In my speech I spoke about the importance of remembering the history of cities such as Liverpool which were torn apart and flung into poverty in the 1980s. These memories highlight the importance of ensuring our main priority is getting a Labour government to prevent history repeating itself. I also chaired a panel on 21st Century Trade Unionism where we had a really interesting discussion on the future of trade unionism in the modern world. I was joined by representatives from Unison, CWU, Community and the GMB giving a good mix of opinions across the panel.
If you have any questions about anything in my report please get in touch! Jasmin Sexual Harassment A huge part of the discussion at our NEC committees this month was based on the new sexual harassment policy that our safeguarding team have been working on. We are a party of over 500,000 members so it is crucial our party is safe for everyone. The new sexual harassment policy can be found here. Since that meeting we have seen numerous members coming forward including Bex Bailey and Ava Etemadzadeh who have been incredibly brave to share their stories on sexual harassment. In light of this I thought it was important that we reacted quickly to ensure we were taking steps to tackle this huge issue. After receiving many emails from members I sent a letter to the NEC and Jeremy Corbyn to push for an independent investigation into these cases and to relook at how we tackle sexual harassment in our party. I was happy with the response I received from the party and an independent investigation is being launched into Bex Bailey’s case but I believe we must go further. We need an independent body away from the party to ensure members feel able to come forward. I will continue to push for this in the coming months. Since this a hotline has been launched for members to call should they experience sexual harassment: 07595432542 – all incidents will be treated with confidentially or you can contact: [email protected]. As I said in my letter, our party must look like the society which we wish to create and in light of these shocking cases we must take action to protect members. Young Labour Annual Conference We held our Young Labour Annual Conference in Warwick this year with over 200 delegates coming along. The delegates were elected from across the regions and nations, from Labour clubs and our affiliates. We began the conference with policy discussion until the afternoon. Later that day Jeremy Corbyn joined us to do a question and answer session which members really enjoyed. I then chaired the afternoon policy discussion where we had lively debate on a variety of topics from NATO to free movement. After this Cat Smith MP, shadow minister for youth affairs and voter engagement joined us for a question and answer session with members. Cat has been a great supporter of what we do in Young Labour so we were really grateful for her coming to speak to us. Later that evening we had a dinner and a quiz planned which was an inclusive event for all members. On Sunday the Young Labour National Committee met with Katy Clark who is currently leading the party’s democracy review. I was really grateful that Katy came to speak to us as we are currently working hard to ensure members are able to feed into this process and aren’t pushed aside. We continued with policy discussion and fringe sessions before finishing the day. Thanks to everyone that came along and in particular to our party staff who worked through the weekend to ensure it was a success. NEC Equalities Committee Jo Cox Women in Leadership Programme We had an update on the Jo Cox programme and how successful it has been with 2 of the women on the last cohort now in parliament as MPs. 9 stood as parliamentary candidates and others are involved in local government. Applications are now open for the second year of the programme and any woman from the party can stand. If you have any questions about this get in touch! Apply here. Young Labour Report
I gave a report back from our Young Labour Annual Conference. We had over 200 delegates from across the regions, nations, affiliates, trade unions and student clubs. As a result of the NEC safeguarding paper we were able to provide a 24 hotline for under 18s should they need it. We could not have run the conference with the huge amount of work from our party staff so we owe them a huge thanks for ensuring the event ran smoothly. Feedback from members was incredibly positive and we look forward to hosting many more events like this in the future. NEC Organisation Committee Party reform We are currently in the process of conducting a democracy review in the Labour party chaired by Katy Clark. This will mean members will be consulted throughout the next few months. The first parts of the review will look at BAME, Women and Young Labour, a paper will then go to NEC on 12th January. I’m really glad young members are taking priority and we are looking at these issues first. You have until the new year to feed into this process and you can do so here: https://action.labour.org.uk/page/s/diversity-and-participation. The paper in January will look at issues such as resources, engagement and democracy based issues such as the electoral system that will elect the YLNC and NEC rep. It is really important that members are listened to here as these issues were due to be decided on in September but they were pushed back to ensure members have their say. The review will also look at the nations, elections and local government. However, these issues will be discussed after the January paper concluding the first phase of the review. Early Selections 79 key seats are to be selected before March 2018 in our most marginal constituencies across the country. Selections for these seats have begun and the NEC reviewed the timetable for this. A key part of the discussion around these seats was ensuring our candidates, especially those from low income backgrounds are supported. A potential 4 years running an expensive campaign is enough to put some off standing and we are currently looking at ways of supporting members from low income backgrounds. If you have any questions about my report please do get in touch: [email protected] Jasmin Conference report Saturday On Saturday morning we had Annual Women’s Conference. This year the conference was different due to the rule changes passed at the previous annual conference to give women’s conference policy making powers. I have sat on the Interim Women’s CAC for the past 6 months where we have been planning this conference, over 1500 women attended, most of whom were visitors which is fantastic. The conference was firstly addressed by Dawn Butler, Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry before we welcomed the newly elected Rosie Duffield. Rosie had taken part in the Labour Women’s Network Jo Cox leadership programme, and is now the MP for Canterbury. It was great to hear about the fantastic work of Labour Women’s Network. After this the agenda turned to policy discussion and fringe sessions. The training and breakout sessions were hugely welcomed by attendees. This year I conducted a survey of young women members and the results of this showed women at conference want to be provided with a wide range of activities such as training and fringe meetings. I'm glad we were able to provide that. I also hosted a welcome for young women members coming to women’s conference with Tracey Brabin MP, a huge thanks to everyone that came along and I hope it was helpful to meet other young women prior to the conference starting. Sunday On Sunday myself and the Chair of Young Labour hosted the Young Labour Annual Gathering which was a full day full of talks and discussion. We had record numbers attend and more new members than ever before. Mental Health Campaign Our Disabled representative on the committee, Miriam Mirwitch launched Young Labour’s Mental Health Campaign and a panel discussion around the topic. This is an incredibly important topic to be focussing on and we will be consulting with young members to find out what you want to be the aim of the campaign. Youth Services panel For the final session of the day I chaired a panel on youth services in conjunction with Unite’s campaign. Cat Smith MP and Jim McMahon MP joined us for the panel discussion. Youth services have faced cuts of around £700m since 2010 so it is great to see our MPs are fighting to protect this vital service for young people. Young Labour Reception After this we had a Young Labour reception with a fantastic line up of speakers such as Jeremy Corbyn, Grace Chatto, Jonathon Ashworth and Jermaine Jackman. It was a great way to end a busy day of discussion and I hope all of our attendees enjoyed the day. Monday Labour List panel I was delighted to be on a panel with Lucy Powell, Laura Pidcock and Clare Moody to discuss what Labour’s plan should be for the first 100 days of government. There was a wide range of views in terms of what Labour’s priorities should be, it was a really interesting discussion. Tuesday Standing for Local Government Tuesday started with a session for our young councillors or those who are looking to stand for council. I chaired a discussion with 4 of our councillors and it was inspiring to hear how our Labour councillors are making a difference across the country and I know the session answered many questions for other members who are looking into standing next time around. Labour Students Priority Campaign I was asked to take part in a discussion by Labour Students on getting people registered to vote in the run up to the 2017 general election and how we build on that. I talked about the importance of Labour not taking the youth vote for granted and ensuring we are building on our successes with policy to reach out to young voters. Rosie Duffield was also on the panel and she discussed the importance of Labour Students in winning Canterbury, Kent Labour Students were invaluable to the campaign and it really proved what we can do when we get out on the doorsteps in force. I spent the rest of the afternoon on the stage listening to delegates speaking in the conference hall. We also heard from the shadow housing minister John Healey with important discussion around Grenfell tower and the issues in housing that need to be tackled by the next Labour government. NEC Meeting We had a final NEC meeting of conference in which we said goodbye to Martin Mayer (Unite) and Jamie Bramwell (UCATT) as well as our chair, Glenis Willmott (EPLP) who is retiring this year. We welcomed Joanne Cairns (USDAW), Sarah Owen (GMB), Ian Murray (FBU) and Mick Whelan (RMT). Alex Rowley is also currently on the NEC as acting leader of Scottish Labour. Andy Kerr (CWU) was elected as the chair of the NEC and Jennie Formby (Unite) was elected Vice Chair. We discussed the dates of our NEC away day in November and the schedule for the year ahead. Rule changes At the NEC meeting we were informed that all of the rule changes we had sent to conference had passed. This included rule changes to increase the NEC CLP section by 3 members and the trade union section by 1 member. I was particularly pleased that the rule change the Jewish Labour Movement sent to conference had passed, this is crucial and will allow us to tackle anti-semitism whenever and wherever we see it. The rule change also allows the party to more generally tackle abuse and hatred in all forms across the party. I'm proud along with many other Labour members and the NEC to have supported this huge step forward. All credit to JLM! Wednesday
CLP Youth Officers Training On Wednesday morning, one of the final fringes of conference was a session I ran with the party to help train up our CLP Youth Officers. It was a really well attended session (for the final day of conference!) and we had discussion around best practice. Young members found the resources we have created so far really helpful and you can find the booklet here. If you have any questions about my report please get in touch: [email protected] Jasmin Labour NEC Jeremy's Report
Jeremy thanked staff for their hard work during the general election. They worked 7 days a week to ensure we got the result we did in the general and we owe them a huge amount. Labour Party membership It is great to hear membership has now reached 575,000 members. Membership often peaks after a general election and with another one around the corner it is crucial new members are welcomed into their local parties. If you are a new young member and have any questions about getting involved do get in touch, EPLP Report It is great to hear that we now have 2 new Labour MEPs after Afzal Khan and Anneliese Dodds were elected as MPs. Glenis Willmott will be retiring from being the longest serving EPLP chair in October. We all wish her the best of luck. Annual Conference I’m excited to announce that there will be a full day of youth events at annual conference on the Sunday (24th September) which would not be possible without help from the party. You can attend the Sunday at a discounted rate of just £10. You can apply here. I have been working with the NEC to make the Young Labour Annual Gathering more accessible this year with an exciting agenda featuring a Young Labour Question time, guest speakers and a reception in the evening. We discussed the proceedings for annual conference including scheduling of our 7:30am NEC meetings. Conference will take place between 23rd – 27th September in Brighton. We agreed the conference timetable, fringe events and finances in this section of the agenda. Labour annual conference is a great opportunity to meet members from across the country, debate politics and meet politicians. It's also a brilliant social event if you are a new member. If you are a new member and don't know what to expect check out my Labour Party Conference Survival Guide here. Rule changes to conference We received the rule changes that local parties have submitted to Labour Party conference. It is the job of the NEC to recommend how conference should vote (support or reject). However due to the already lengthy discussion this decision has been pushed back. Procedures to select candidates Despite the last GE being just over a month ago we must continue to look outwards. The Tories have a slim majority in the commons with the help of the DUP and this is likely to collapse in the next two years. Jeremy is committed to visiting the 40 key marginal seats between now and September to keep up the momentum from the campaign. We therefore agreed the process for selecting candidates in English marginal seats for the next general election. Party members will be able to select their candidates in the next few months, however, we must remain mindful that there is no guarantee of an early general election and this can take its toll on potential candidates (we may have 5 years to wait). In Wales and Scotland their executive committees will be responsible for drawing up a process to select candidates in the nations. The NEC will also decide which seats will be All Woman Shortlists in our September meeting. We have made huge progress getting women into the PLP but we must not stop until we have a 50/50 PLP and a 50/50 parliament. General Election 2017 Debrief Next we heard from our general election coordinators Iain Lavery and Andrew Gwynne who shared with us the GE report. It is apparent that we did much better than expected and it is vital we thank everyone involved for our successes but also to look at what went wrong. The NEC was united in congratulating Jeremy on his performance and thanking party staff for their exceptional work. We ran a hugely successful voter registration drive and I was proud to take part in a webinar with Emily Thornberry and first year student Kiran Dhaliwal to encourage young people to register to vote. In the lead up to the next general election we must continue to register students to vote and you can find the video here. Young members were vital in getting other young people to register to vote and knocking doors in the run up to polling day. I ensured the NEC knew of different events that took place and Young Labour’s contribution to the win. Thank you to all of you! Youth engagement Next, we discussed youth engagement. I'd like to thank all the young members who got in touch with me before the meeting to express the importance of resources, opportunities and funding for Young Labour. We now have 90,000 young members and it is therefore crucial that we reach out to every single new young member in our movement. I'm glad this is now on the agenda and we will be looking further into how we ensure young members are able to participate in the Labour Party. Young people came out in masses to vote Labour in this election but we cannot take that for granted. I will be meeting with the General Secretary Iain McNicol in the next few weeks to discuss what more the party can do for Young Labour. Youth Conference 2017 The NEC was then presented with a paper for the upcoming youth policy conference which will take place on October 14/15th. To be clear this was not a motion, it was a paper which requires NEC approval and is the norm for any conferences and events happening within the party. The paper outlined that delegates must be under 27 and all delegations must be gender balanced. In this paper we were given proposals of how delegations would be chosen for the NEC to discuss. I was unhappy with how this was presented to the NEC at the back end of an agenda with little consultation prior to the paper being put together. The NEC agreed that this issue needed more consideration due to the sensitivity after the Royal Report last year which looked into safeguarding young members at conference. I emphasised this point. There was also some discussion about the electoral college. I am proud of the makeup of Young Labour which gives a voice to young workers and students. It is crucial that Young Labour represents all young members in our policy making process. Young Labour policy is decided by young members only and all delegations are made up of young members (under 27). I want a strong Young Labour to ensure we get Jeremy Corbyn into no 10, which means we must be united, not falsely pitting young workers and students against each other. As always I am open to hearing young member's views on this and my email is always available. I am now working with the party to ensure young members are given a voice and that our safeguarding team is happy with the plans for conference. Please do get in touch if you have any views on the subject. National Policy Forum It is exciting to hear that our 2017 manifesto was so popular it is now on its third reprint. Thank you to those that made submissions and engaged with the NPF over the last few years. Input from young members is vital and you can still make submissions here. A report will be submitted to Labour party conference regarding the NPF activities. If you have any questions about my report or want to voice your opinions get in touch with me: [email protected] Jasmin NEC Youth Representative 2nd May – NPF priorities meeting I had a phone call meeting quite soon after the general election was called with our North West National Policy Forum representatives to discuss our priorities for the Labour manifesto. We had a long discussion and I spoke about the work myself and the Education commission have been doing in preparation for the manifesto. This included affordable childcare, free school meals and educational maintenance allowance. Some key policies I raised were looking at introducing free sanitary protection to girls who qualify for free school meals, political education, votes at 16 and meaningful PSHE. 3nd May – General election candidate endorsement meeting After candidates for constituencies are selected it is the job of the NEC to endorse the candidates before they can be nominated. I’m pleased to say we have selected more BAME, women, disabled, young and LGBT candidates than ever before. In retirement seats we had 10 men and 3 women retire. In these seats we selected 10 women and 3 men. We have selected 59% men overall and 40% women, this is up from 2015 where we selected only 34% women. I have put on record that I am disappointed that this is not closer to 50/50 but acknowledge that we have made huge steps towards this and will continue to do so. We have selected more Young Labour candidates than ever before and this will truly pave the way for more young members to stand in the future. You can check out my blog encouraging young members to stand here. 4th May – Polling day In Merseyside we had polling day for the Liverpool city region metro mayor election. I campaigned all day in Wirral South for Steve Rotherham with other young members and I’m so proud that we won. Steve is going to be a fantastic mayor for the city region and I’m excited to see what he will do. 6th May – Labour students campaign day On 6th May we welcomed young members and Labour Students from Manchester to Wirral South. They came all the way across to campaign to help Alison McGovern hold her seat and have made a huge difference. Thanks for coming along! 11th May – Clause V meeting The Clause V meeting refers to the meeting whereby the NEC, the shadow cabinet and trade union representatives have the opportunity to read the manifesto, edit it and confirm it before it goes to the voters. I was really excited about attending this meeting and seeing what was in the Labour manifesto, we had 2 hours to read it in the morning (with copious amounts of coffee) before we went through it chapter by chapter. As we went through it we were able to suggest edits which could either be accepted or rejected by the shadow minister. We were able to do everything by consensus and no votes took place which was positive. I spoke mostly on the education chapter of the manifesto encouraging the inclusion of political education, PSHE and the reintroduction of maintenance grants. I also reiterated the importance of tackling violence against women which is an important issue. The final amended document then passed unanimously. I am so proud of this manifesto and I believe it will give the country and especially young people hope after 7 years of Tory austerity. 17th May – Facebook live – encouraging young people to vote 4 days before the register to vote deadline I took a very early train down to London to host a Facebook live webinar with shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry and first time voter Kiran Dhaliwal. The webinar was to encourage young people to register to vote. Young people are going to be crucial in deciding the outcome of this election and the stakes have never been higher. So register to vote and encourage your friends to, if you don’t vote the government can ignore young people. We have seen this since 2010 when the Tories trebled tuition fees, scrapped grants and made it harder for young people to buy a house. If young people vote the government would be forced to take us seriously! Check out the webinar here. Check out my blog on this here. 22nd May – Campaigning with Jewish Labour Movement Jewish Labour Movement came to Liverpool to campaign on 22nd May and I joined Ella Rose campaigning in my home constituency of Liverpool Wavertree for Luciana Berger. JLM have been amazing travelling across the country campaigning for some fantastic MPs including Louise Ellman, Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth amongst many others. 27th May – Labour Students Transitional Conference
I attended Labour Students conference and would like to congratulate those who stood for positions. The speeches were to such a high standard and I know how difficult it can be to get up and put yourself out there, so well done to all! If you require this report in a different format or have any questions please get in touch: [email protected] Jasmin NEC Youth Representative Due to the nature of April I published some of my reports as separate pieces including the Young Labour National Committee meeting and the emergency meeting of the NEC in light of the general election being called. I have linked to these under the headings below.
Young Labour National Committee meeting You can find my report for this meeting here. Early general election called On April 18th Theresa May announced there would be an early general election called for 8th June. This was not unexpected and as I mention in my report of the Emergency NEC meeting we have been planning for the potential of a snap general election since last year. An emergency NEC meeting was called in light of the announcement which you can see my report for below. It is so crucial we now get out on the doorstep, speak to the voters and ensure we win for Labour. You can find your nearest campaign event here. Over the next few weeks we will be selecting candidates for parliamentary seats up and down the country… I really want to see young members standing in seats and I have written a blog to encourage young members to stand! We’re not the future, we are the now and you can make a difference today so put yourself forward. Check it out here. Registering young people to vote It is so important that we get as many young people registered to vote between now and 22nd May. Young people are far less likely to go out and vote on election day and this is a key region why we are the age group often neglected by politicians. I have written a piece for Labour List on how and why we need to ensure young people are registered to vote in this election! Find it here. Emergency NEC meeting You can find my report for this meeting here. If you have any questions with regards to any of my meeting reports from April please do get in touch: [email protected] Jasmin On 18th April Theresa May notified the country she would be calling a general election, therefore we held an emergency National Executive Committee meeting on 19th April at HQ. The main points of discussion were around the general election, campaign themes and strategy, policy making and the manifesto and finances. In spite of reports suggesting Labour is unprepared for this election we have actually been preparing for this since last year with increased staff and office space. Leader's Report Jeremy spoke firstly about Labour’s reaction in parliament to this announcement and how we are positive going forward. He reaffirmed his commitment to ensure young people are registered and not disenfranchised with the election held in the middle of exams and when students may be between 2 places. Jeremy Corbyn and Kezia Dugdale then spoke of the importance of dismissing the idea of a ‘progressive’ alliance with the SNP, Greens and Lib Dems. These parties are not progressive and as a Labour Party we will be working to ensure a Labour government. Selection of parliamentary candidates It was agreed that for the 631 constituencies where Labour stands candidates the NEC will shortlist and select candidates prior to 3rd May. Seats with Labour MP: they will be automatically reselected pending NEC endorsement. Seats with retiring Labour MPs: panels of the NEC officers will select candidates after an interview. All other seats: panels of NEC and regional board members from each region will shortlist based on CVs of applications and select a candidate for each constituency. Any 2015 candidate wanting to re-stand will also be given the opportunity to do so. Applications will open on 21st April and close on 23rd April. On 3rd April we will meet as the NEC to choose whether to endorse candidates. I pushed to ensure that the party reaffirms its commitment to all woman shortlists (AWS) as we did in 2015, thanks to the young Labour women who wrote to me about this. It is vital we are encouraging candidates who are from minority backgrounds and women to stand for parliament. I really want to encourage young members to put your names forward for seats, you can be a candidate from the age of 18 and it is so important young members are able to take full part in our party’s processes. I have written a blog on the topic here. If you have any questions about standing for a seat get in touch! It is regrettable that members will not get to take part in this selection process but due to time constraints it is crucial we select candidates quickly and get campaigning started for a Labour victory! Campaign themes and strategy Next we were given an update on Labour’s campaign and strategy plan. Regional offices will be directing campaigners to marginal seats in their area. I asked about the importance of ensuring young members are given the information and resources to be able to fully participate and get into key seats, this is now a priority for the party. I also spoke about the salience of Brexit in this general election and how we need to work this into the majority of speeches and pledges because ultimately many will vote based on this. The NEC welcomed the promise that all policies will be fully costed and consistent. I am confident the campaign we will be running is strong and I would like to thank party staff who are working incredibly hard in such difficult circumstances to ensure the campaign is the best it can be. Policy making and Manifesto I am proud that we have committed to ensure our manifesto is accessible to people will disabilities as we did in 2015. Firstly, stakeholder engagement will take place and I will be representing Young Labour during this process. Stakeholders include sections of the party, trade unions and socialist societies. NPF representatives will also be consulted and I will be ensuring the NPF youth reps are also included in this process and not shut out. A Clause V meeting will be held, chaired by Jeremy Corbyn this will include the NEC, the shadow cabinet, the parliamentary committee of the PLP and the exec of the NPF. During this meeting we will agree the manifesto. I will be pushing to ensure young members in our party are heard during this process and will do my best to represent everyone. We need a manifesto for young people to win the general election and to do this we need to show young people in the country that Labour is the party for young people. Membership activity In line with the party rule book all internal Labour Party meetings are temporarily suspended due to the general election. However, members may still meet to campaign and plan campaigning. Campaigning If you are a young member wanting to get out on the doorstep and campaign in the next few weeks, then that is fantastic. There are numerous ways you can do this and we will have more information this week. However, as a first port of call get in touch with your CLP secretary (although they may email you first) to ask when campaigning sessions are being held. Young Labour and Labour Students will be organising some big campaign days but for the most part getting into your nearest key seat (seats which are marginal) will be crucial for a Labour win. If you have not campaigned before just let the organiser know when you get there and they will pair you up with a more experienced door knocker to show you the ropes. In 2015 I campaigned on the Wirral West campaign, one of the only seats we stole back from the Tories electing Margaret Greenwood. Wirral Young Labour's work on this seat over 3 years is likely to have made the difference in the 400 vote majority. Young Labour can make history by getting out on the doorstep and campaigning for Labour, you can too! I'm so excited to see young members on the doorstep over the next 7 weeks and I will be getting around the country to as many key seats as possible. So if you have any campaign days planned get in touch! Any questions, drop me an email: [email protected] Jasmin Labour NEC Youth Rep On 11th April we had a full Young Labour National Committee meeting. I have summarised the main discussion points from the meeting.
Young Labour Bank Account Working with party staff we now have our own bank account which is exciting. Discussions were had at the meeting about how we were able to fundraise for that account and appropriate uses of the money. I suggested once the fund is more established to look at distributing the money to regions to spend on their own Young Labour groups and events. Young members often struggle to attend national events so ensuring our regions have more money to spend on local young Labour groups is a key priority. I also pushed to ensure a portion of this money goes into a hardship travel fund for young members to attend national campaign days and events. We have made our past 2 national events free of charge but I am currently lobbying the party to help with travel to these events because I think this is the biggest barrier for involvement. Feedback from our Equalities Academy and Political School We have had good feedback from our past 2 national events and I'm really proud that we were able to ensure these were spread out regionally and in accessible locations. Members enjoyed meeting other young members and the variety of speakers we had at events. Young members also enjoyed the training elements of the events. I once again raised the issue of transport costs being a barrier to involvement as we did have a drop off of numbers at our Equalities Academy in Bristol. However, our Political School in Birmingham was easier to get to so more were able to come along. Massive thanks goes out to our party staff who worked incredibly hard to make both weekends possible and as engaging as possible! Young Labour Conference 2017 We then discussed our next annual Young Labour conference which will be held in Autumn 2017. This event has been pushed back until Autumn as we have already had 2 national events in the Spring and also to ensure we are able to make the event as accessible, safe and engaging as possible. I have met with our new Safeguarding team at Labour HQ to discuss how we can improve after our last conference in Scarborough and I will continue to do this. We are also looking at implementing the Royal Report after Scarborough to ensure the conference is safe and friendly. I will be working with our liberation officers to ensure the conference is accessible to all liberation groups. Finally, I emphasised the need to ensure policy discussion was accessible to everyone not just those who know how to write a motion and make a speech in front of 300 people. It is vital we have a mixture of flexible ways to discuss policy so those who feel more confident in smaller groups also get to have their say. I also pushed for the need to host a meeting with our National Policy Forum Youth Representatives and having them involved in the planning. East Midlands Regional Representative Vacancy Our East Midlands regional rep on the YLNC has resigned so we are working to swiftly find a replacement. Members from the East Midlands keep an eye out for an email from your regional office detailing how this will be done. The more young members running the better so do consider standing for it if you are an EMYL member! Mental Health Campaign Update Our Young Labour priority campaign is Mental Health and we are currently setting up a meeting with Barbara Keeley MP about how we are going to take this forward. We will also be inviting representatives from the Labour Campaign for Mental Health to this meeting. I am really keen to see this campaign up and running as one of my manifesto pledges was to ensure our party is more accessible for those with mental health issues. I know how hard it can be to get involved when you have an invisible disability and that is something I'll be working hard with our Young Labour disability officer, Miriam Mirwitch to fix. Young Labour Group Registration Process We have been working to ensure the way we register Young Labour groups as 'official' is more streamlined and accessible. I have been working with the party's youth officer to look at how we can do this. A form has been developed which we have shared with Young Labour groups but so far only have 9 groups have officially registered. If you are the chair of a Young Labour group or CLP youth officer then please do speak to your regional office to get a form. If anyone has any questions about the above get in touch: [email protected] Jasmin NEC Youth Rep NEC Equalities Committee – 7th March Report from Women’s Conference working group We had a report back from the Women’s Conference Working Group which all women NEC members are invited to attend. This NEC working group was set up after 2016 annual conference voted to give women’s conference a formal role in policy-making. To ensure Young Labour women were at the forefront of this process I set up a survey asking young Labour women how we can make women’s conference more accessible to them, I was really pleased over 100 young women filled in the survey. Prior to the meeting I summed up the responses and circulated this around the NEC I will use these suggestions to ensure young women’s opinions are taken into account. The Equalities committee approved the interim Women’s Conference Arrangements Committee (WCAC) which I have been appointed to sit on: Shabana Mahmood – NPF Vice Chair and NEC representative Cath Speight – NEC Trade Union representative Diana Holland – NEC Trade Union Representative Alice Perry – NEC Representative Ann Black – NEC Representative Jasmin Beckett – NEC Representative Report on Young Labour events I gave the committee an update on youth events including the success of our recent Equalities Academy in Bristol. This was an event aimed at self defining BAME, disabled, women and LGBT young members and I stressed how proud I was that we in Young Labour are leading the way on events like this. Our Young Labour Political School which will be on 18th March in Birmingham. It sold out in half a day which shows the popularity of such events. Young Labour Report I then gave the stakeholders report for Young Labour in which I talked about the successful London and Scotland youth conferences. I spoke about the vital contribution our young members made to the by-elections in Stoke and Copeland last month and thanked them for their work. Finally, I spoke about the meetings I have had with our new safeguarding team to ensure young members are protected in the party general but also at national events. I will continue to work with the team to push for this. NEC Organisation Committee – 7th March Disciplinary Process Paper We were updated on the drafts of the party’s new complaints and disciplinary process which involves a new comprehensive sexual harassment policy, I’m glad we are finally taking these issues seriously. We are also in the middle of implementing the recommendations from the Royall and Chakrabarti reports. The NEC is taking steps to tackle the rise of anti-semitism and we are ensuring this is reflected in the disciplinary and complaints procedure. The complaints procedure is also being improved with the aim to have this streamlined to ensure it is more open and transparent. This will include a central contact for all complaints, a new safeguarding unit and more information to those who are involved in cases. Standing Candidates in Northern Ireland Labour is currently in the process of conducting a review into whether we should stand candidates in Northern Ireland. The Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, General Secretary and Labour Party officials have been in discussion and are working to establish a timetable that will allow the review to take place as soon as practicably possible this year. However, the announcement of elections for the Assembly means we could not conduct that work until they were complete on March 2nd. The NEC panel intend to visit Northern Ireland now that these elections are complete to consult with relevant stakeholders and Party members on the question of whether the Labour Party should stand candidates in Northern Ireland. Young Labour Political School – 18th March We were really excited to hold our Young Labour Political School on 18th March after months of planning. We were able to welcome Jeremy Corbyn and socialist societies from across our movement. I chaired the Workplace 2020 panel with Jack Dromey MP and representatives from the GMB, Unison and the CWU. This was an engaging discussion based around young workers and looking at creating the workplace of the future. I’m currently working with the party to ensure this campaign is relevant to young workers, if you want to get involved get in touch. We had fringe sessions ran by our brilliant socialist societies. If you want to find out more about these check them out here: http://www.labour.org.uk/pages/affiliated-organisations As a result of my youth paper to the NEC last year we are able to ensure Young Labour puts on at least 4 national events per year, this was the first Political School we have held and it was a huge success. Any feedback do get in touch. Massive thanks to our party staff who work tirelessly to ensure Young Labour is able to put on such engaging events! Full NEC Meeting – 21st March
Leaders report Jeremy gave an update on his work as party leader. Jeremy talked about the recent PES conference in London which he spoke at. We discussed the recent shocking loss of Copeland and success in keeping Stoke Labour, Jeremy thanked members for their contribution to the campaign. I asked Jeremy if he could clarify his position on a second Scottish referendum and he assured the NEC that he was not pro a second referendum but if the Scottish Parliament voted for it Labour would not block it. He also maintained that he is in constant contact with Scottish Labour which is crucial to ensure no confusion. Deputy Leader’s report Tom Watson gave an update on his work as deputy leader. Tom updated the NEC on the Scottish Labour conference he attended and also discussed work he is doing with USDAW on looking at technology in the workplaces. Tom spoke about the Local Government conference and the good work we did last year to give first time councillors a free pass to the conference which has seen an increase in new councillors going along. Report by John McDonnell John McDonnell MP then came to talk about Labour’s response to the budget. The discussion was based around social care, schools and the NHS. We also talked about the importance of gaining confidence on economy based issues and costing of policies, John assured the NEC that this is a priority. At the moment we are doing a lot of work looking at education policy with reports of parents being asked by teachers to help fund schools which we agreed is outrageous. Sarah Champion MP was also praised for her work looking into how the cuts are disproportionately affecting women, this is vital. Elections 2017 Ian Lavery MP and Andrew Gwynne MP came to NEC to update us on preparations for the 2017 elections campaigns, strategy and how we are preparing for an early general election. This year there are crucial elections in Scotland, England and Wales as well as mayoral elections. The new election coordinators discussed the party’s local election campaign ‘Standing Up For You’ – which is to be launched in the coming weeks. Mobilising our members is at the centre of our campaign and ensuring they get the training and are welcomed is key. I voiced the importance of looking at how to juggle a potential Scottish referendum, a general election and Brexit so we can fight on all fronts. Both Ian and Andrew agreed with this and assured us they are working hard with party staff to prepare. There are a number of timetables in place in the case of an early general election, the NEC would have an emergency meeting if one were to be called to agree this. General Secretary Report Iain McNicol then gave the NEC an update on staffing and one issue which was raised was that of stories in the press which have turned out to be a completely falsified rumour that Jeremy Corbyn’s office was not staffed properly. Jeremy intervened and made clear that this is completely untrue. Jeremy actually has more staff than Ed Miliband had during his time in the last Parliament, Ed had 28 staff members in 2014 whilst Jeremy has 32 staff members in 2017. Iain also spoke of CLPs and their need for more funds with the huge increase in new members, this was welcomed. I voiced my concern at the shock loss of Copeland and suggested we look into an investigation for this. Although we were reminded that this is reflected in the polls at the moment. European PLP report Glenis Willmott gave us an update on the EPLP and also spoke about what she and colleagues are doing in Brussels to ensure we get the best deal for the UK out of Brexit. Concern at the moment is in looking at job losses and the effect this will have on the UK if we leave the single market. Jeremy and Glenis both reiterated their opposition of the far right and racism. International Report We heard from the international team who spoke about the successful PES (Party of European Socialists) conference held in London in February. I mentioned that myself, Iain McNicol and our Young Labour chair met with Young European Socialists at PES conference to agree to lift the cap on the amount of members Young Labour sends to their events under various safeguarding rules. This is an important step forward, especially during the uncertainty for us and our European sister parties during Brexit. We need solidarity not separation. As always, any questions with anything in my report or just general queries about Young Labour or the NEC, get in touch: [email protected] Jasmin Labour NEC Youth Rep |
AuthorHere are my Monthly NEC Youth Rep reports and my full NEC meeting reports, starting from March 2016 I'll keep this updated so you know what's going on. Archives
January 2018
Categories |