National Executive Committee Meeting - 15th March
On 15th March I attended my first full NEC meeting. These full meetings take place every 2 months. Crowdsourcing questions As promised in my manifesto I want to try and open up the NEC to young members. So in a similar way to how Jeremy has got the public involved with PMQs the aim for my first NEC meeting was to get young members more involved with the NEC. To do this I set up an online survey where young members could send in questions for me to put to Jeremy Corbyn on your behalf. I had a fantastic response to this and received over 100 questions from members across the country, the questions were on various issues from youth engagement to mental health policy. I asked a question to Jeremy from one of our young workers from Nottingham, he asked “The so called living wage doesn’t apply to under 25s, what will you do to challenge this awful Tory policy?” Jeremy reaffirmed that the living wage should apply to under 25s and cited the argument that under 25s still need to put a roof over their heads and eat like those over 25. It’s fantastic that Jeremy is supporting issues that are close to Young Labour and I was proud to make this my first question at the NEC. European Referendum Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP) Glenis Wilmott talked about the importance of the European referendum coming up on 23rd June and how we need to ensure we are giving members the tools to be able to get out on the doorstep and fight for the EU. It was also raised that this is going to be one of the biggest questions we will face in a generation and potentially life changing thus we can’t wait until after May to start campaigning to remain in the EU, we need to start now. Young Labour will play an important part in that fight and we must ensure we are giving young members the support to be able to get out on the doorstep for the referendum. Members under 18 We now have 10,000 young members under the age of 18 and it is our job as the Labour Party to ensure they feel included and supported. The issue was raised that sometimes younger members of our party are put off from coming to big events such as Youth Conference due to issues such as safeguarding, parental consent and practical issues like booking hotels. It was noted that we need to do more as a party to support the younger members of our youth movement and this is something I want to make a priority when we review the structure of Young Labour in the future. Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough by-election It was noted that we have now chosen our candidate for the Sheffield and Brightside by-election after the sad death of Harry Harpham. Gill Furniss will contest the seat in May. It is incredibly important that we get out in Sheffield and secure a Labour MP for the constituency. We will be organising some big Young Labour and Labour Students campaign days in Sheffield in the next month so keep a look out! NEC Sub-Committees Along with full NEC meetings I am also required to attend various NEC committees. My very first meeting was 2 days after I was elected on Tuesday 2nd March. Equalities sub-committee The first meeting I attended was the equalities sub-committee on Tuesday 1st March. It was a nice introduction to the NEC and with the youth conference being the weekend before a lot of questions were raised around accessibility and issues faced by members at the conference, especially those under 18 who may have struggled to attend due to finances or issues with booking hotels. National youth officer Stephen Donnelly was present and agreed that accessibility is a top priority for Young Labour and we are going to ensure more is done at future events to ensure they are accessible for all young members. Development fund panel One of the panels that meets a few times a year at the NEC is the development fund panel which goes through CLP secretaries and regional offices to allow them to request funding for certain projects. I attended this meeting on 7th March and approved a substantial amount of money for Young Labour to put into looking at how we turn young members into activists and ensure they have the skills they need to get the most out of the Labour Party. There will be more to come on this soon! Young Member Events West Derby Youth Event On Thursday 31st March I was asked to speak at West Derby CLPs policy and pizza event with local MP Stephen Twigg. It was a great event with lots of new faces mixed in with more familiar ones. I talked about how I got involved with Young Labour by accident 5 years ago and it being the best decision I ever made. It was interesting to hear a lot members say that Young Labour isn’t always well advertised when you join, which I agree with. I want to make it a priority to ensure all new young members get a welcome pack when they join so they can be directed to their nearest young Labour group! Putting my manifesto into action I've also had various meetings over the past month to start working on putting my manifesto pledges into action. I was proud to be able to crowdsource questions from my first NEC meeting, I'm keeping everyone updated with these regular newsletters and I'm also planning to answer your questions live on a video next week. I'll also be having meetings in the next few weeks about organising a Young Trade Unionists month for young Labour. I'll be working on implementing the rest of my manifesto and if you have any questions about this please get in touch!
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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
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