NEC Away day On 22nd November we had our bi-annual NEC away day. Leader’s report We opened with a report from Jeremy Corbyn who discussed work he had been doing over the last few months. He commented that after the leadership election it is now time to look outwards towards the elections in 2017 and a potential general election if called early. Jeremy discussed his speech at CBI and also the party’s plan on Brexit, he reaffirmed we will not block a plan to leave the EU. We are now working to secure the best possible left wing deal from Brexit to protect workers and the environment. General secretary’s report Iain McNicol reported on by-elections we have contested this year and spoke of the upcoming mayoral and local elections that we are working hard to prepare for. He commented that Labour has developed numerous training programmes and bursaries for candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds and those who are unrepresented. The upcoming year’s priorities are maintaining financial stability, preparing for an early general election and engaging our new members. We welcomed Iain’s praise to staff for their continued hard work (often out of working hours). Urgent Business Next we we discussed NEC committees and policy commissions of which the membership is renewed each year (see below). It was agreed every member of the NEC will sit on the organisation sub-committee and disputes panel. I was also reallocated to Equalities sub-committee. Suspensions It was noted 1000 people were suspended from the party during the leadership election and 800 of those have now had their suspensions lifted with a formal warning. All of the remaining more serious suspensions are being investigated and we will discuss these at our next NEC disputes panel meeting. It was also noted at NEC disputes that we re-look at and suggest improvements for this process. Report from Rebecca Long-Bailey MP – Autumn Statement Rebecca outlined the party’s plans for the Autumn statement and what our response would be. It was an incredibly comprehensive and detailed update. She spoke about our economic plan to prepare businesses and workers for the future by adequately equipping them. Also how we need to be the party for all income groups which is key to our electoral success. Our economic plan for post leaving the EU was also outlined and then she took questions from the NEC. Keir Starmer MP – Brexit update Keir Starmer MP (shadow Brexit secretary) then gave a fantastic report on the party’s response to Brexit. He echoed Jeremy restating that the party will not block Brexit in Parliament. He agreed we more work with the EU to secure the best possible outcome for the UK and condemned Theresa May for having no proper strategy. The Tories are completely divided on this issue, much more than is being played out in the media which is a reason as to why the Tories are worryingly quiet on the issue. We then went to questions from the NEC and I asked what Labour’s key manifesto pledge and one liner on Brexit would be if we are to go into an early general election? And also if we are looking at strategy to deal with a potential fall out from pro-remain Labour voters if we are going to now stand on a platform to not block leaving the EU. This is something I think is incredibly important as we must portray that although we are not a pro-Brexit party, we will not block Brexit. We must have a clear plan on how we communicate this to voters and I was reassured by Keir’s response that the party is working hard to do this. It was also discussed how we can’t simply brush off the issue of immigration, we must look at how we deal with this issue from the point of being the Labour Party instead of looking at how other parties deal with it. John Trickett MP – Preparation for an early General Election John Trickett was up next to discuss the parties plan for 2017 elections and our plan for an early general election. He confirmed that Labour will vote for an early general election in parliament if given the chance to. We must be ready for an election whenever called. We discussed various preparations being put in place for a snap general election, we are drawing up a list of key seats which will not be made public. Rebuttal and attack will be vastly improved and worked on over the coming months as this was an issue raised many times. We have new bits of technology including the Doorstep App and social media will be a key part of our development. We are also preparing for 2017 elections that are definitely taking place including local elections, mayoral elections and country council elections. Next we talked about messages and targeting. I asked how we can ensure we can improve messaging and work on ensuring our key messages and rebuttals are having the effect we want on voters. This includes ensuring we are avoiding terms which may mean different things to different people. I am assured this is something the party are looking to hugely improve. Financial report The party is now debt free for the first time in our history and it was noted that although this is a huge success we must plan carefully and follow our successful financial plan which has worked to get us out of debt. We have over half a million members but membership numbers constantly change so we must still stick to our financial plan. This is a welcomed report and the party’s financial team deserve to be commended for their work on the long-term financial strategy. The next full NEC meeting will be in January along with various sub-committees. Welsh Young Labour Conference It was fantastic to be able to attend Welsh Young Labour and Labour Students conference in Swansea on the 5th November. It was their biggest conference yet with loads of members coming down for the weekend. I delivered training for young members attending on what Young Labour is and how to be an effective CLP youth officer, afterwards young members had loads of questions about various processes involved with setting up a Young Labour group which is great that young members are thinking of setting groups up. I was also able to attend a fantastic training event on how to liberate your Labour club ran by Ellen and Sheri-Ann, young members attending this session had many great ideas about how we can encourage more women, BAME, LGBT and disabled members to get involved and stand for positions within Young Labour and it was refreshing to hear so many good ideas on this key issue for the party. Meeting with Young Jewish Labour Movement members On Monday I travelled down to London to meet with young members of JLM to consult with them with regards to a meeting I will soon be having with the NEC Equalities Committee to discuss how we implement the recommendations of the Chakrabarti report into anti-Semitism. For me it was an eye-opening and quite an emotional meeting where members told of experiences they have had with anti-Semitism and we came out with some good practical action points that I will take to my Equalities meeting so I can properly represent young Jewish members views. London Young Labour Reception I attended the LYL reception at Labour HQ on Tuesday 15th November. This was such a fantastic event organised by the brilliant London Young Labour committee. I got the chance to chat to new members who had came to this event as their first event so it was brilliant to find out their reasons for getting involved. When speaking at the event I talked about the exceptional work that has been done by London Young Labour over the years including the election of Sadiq Khan, the engaging policy forums and phone banks. Eastern Region Youth Conference I was delighted when asked to chair Eastern Young Labour’s VERY FIRST regional conference! One of my main aims whilst I’m NEC youth rep is to get regional conferences and events up and running to make Young Labour more accessible for all so I was excited to be a part of this. We started with a workshop from the wonderful Isobel Morris (NPF rep for Eastern) who worked through questions with breakout groups on different areas of policy. We had over an hour on this and it was great to see young members discussing policy so passionately and with such extensive knowledge. Next I delivered my training workshop for CLP youth officers and for any young members training to engage others. Once again members had loads of questions afterwards and it was good to be able to help young members gain new skills and information. Training for young members is so important and I’m looking forward to developing more over the next few months. We then had Iain McNicol (Labour general secretary) came to do a question and answer session, as always Iain was incredibly engaging and answered young members’ questions for over 40 minutes. Myself and Eastern region rep, Jess Barnard then updated young members on various things Young Labour are doing nationally before finishing off the day. A hugely successful event! Labour National Policy Forum On 19th-20th November I attended the National Policy Forum in Loughborough where we elected Ann Cryer as the new chair of the NPF along with our vice chairs: Shabana Mahmood MP, Katrina Murray and Mick Wheelan. I then was asked to chair the Children and Education Policy Commission session with Angela Rayner MP (Shadow minister for Education). Angela gave us a quick update on what is happening in the Education department and where Labour are up to in terms of holding the Government to account on Grammar Schools. Next I opened up the discussion and members fed in what they thought the commissions priorities should be over the next year which we took note of, there were some really interesting contributions from the floor. We then had a great session from Keir Starmer MP on the plan for a successful Brexit and then went on to another workshop. It was a really interesting weekend and a great opportunity to meet the other brilliant NPF reps. At our NEC away day we agreed the policy commission co-chairs will be:
I will be sitting on the Early years, education and skills committee again this year. Meeting with politics students from India On 29th November I was invited along to Lancaster House to speak to a delegation of politics students from India who were in the UK to learn more about how we do politics here. I spoke to them about the work I do with Young Labour and how this links in with Labour Students and our trade unions. It was such an interesting meeting and we’ve exchanged emails to hopefully link up in the future!
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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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