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
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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 |
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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