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
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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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