Labour Party Conference 2019

UPDATE: Momentum is supporting Wayne Blackburn (Pendle, L1219739) to be disabled representative on the Conference Arrangements Committee. CLPs have until June 28th to make nominations.

Labour Party Conference is the sovereign body in the Party’s policy-making process, where delegates come together to discuss and decide rule changes and policies. Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) elect their delegates to the Labour Party Conference any time between January and midnight on Friday June 28th. Delegates must have joined the Labour Party on or before 28 December 2018.

The 2018 Labour Party Conference in Liverpool saw 1396 delegates debating and voting on key party issues. Although the Democracy Review did not deliver the far-reaching changes supported by Momentum, some important reforms were approved, including the democratisation of the way MPs are reselected, the ending of the one year gap for CLPs to wait before their rule changes can be heard at Conference, an expansion of the number of motions to be debated and the abolition of the ‘contemporary’ criterion for motions.

This year Momentum will once again be organising to ensure that the Party approves further democratising reforms

Delegate entitlements

CLPs are entitled to one delegate for the first 749 full members and a further delegate for every additional 250 individual members. At least every second delegate from a CLP has to be a woman, and where only one delegate is appointed this must be a woman at least every second year. In CLPs where there are 100 or more women members, an additional woman delegate may be appointed. In CLPs where there are 30 or more young members, an additional delegate under the age of 27 may be appointed.

CLPs do not have to appoint their full delegate entitlement, although they do have the option of crowdfunding to finance additional delegates. However, the number of delegates sent does not affect CLPs voting weight. Therefore, focus should be on ensuring that CLP delegates support policies to transform Britain, and thus reflect the views of Labour’s membership, rather than increasing the overall number of delegates. CLPs have until June 28th to submit information of the delegates they are sending to Conference.

Rule Changes for 2019 Conference

Thanks to a rule change passed in Liverpool, CLPs can now submit rule changes to be on the agenda for this year’s conference, in addition to the rule changes that were passed last year and are already on the agenda (see the 2018 delegate report here). To see the rule changes Momentum is proposing for Conference, please see here.

Motions for the 2019 Conference

Following a rule change that emerged from the Democracy Review and which was approved at last year’s Conference, this year CLPs that decide to submit a motion rather than a rule change can submit their motion from anytime up until Thursday 12th September 2019 (appeals for motions ruled out of order by the CAC will be on Wednesday 18th September, and the deadline for emergency motions, covering issues which occur after September 12th, is Thursday 19th September). In addition, as many as ten motions from the CLP section can be debated at Conference, as well as ten motions supported by affiliates, meaning a major expansion in topics to be debated at this year’s Conference. Although motions are generally associated with party policy, motions on organisational issues are also in order. The ‘contemporary’ criterion has also been abolished.

Momentum’s NCG has decided to circulate ten motions, drafted by a number of organisations such as Labour for a Green New Deal, Labour for a 4 Day Week, Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Labour Against Racism and Fascism, We Own It, and the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign. They have also decided to circulate one organisational motion, asking the NEC to bring back to the 2020 Conference a range of options to democratise choice in future leadership elections. For this motion, see here.

Conference Arrangements Committee

For the first time, Conference will elected a disabled representative to the Conference Arrangements Committee (CAC) this year. Momentum is supporting Wayne Blackburn (Pendle, L1219739), who is also supported by Disability Labour.

Elections for the two members’ representatives on the Conference Arrangements Committee will take place this Summer, via a One Member One Vote ballot of party members. Momentum will once again be supporting Seema Chandwani (Tottenham CLP, L1187007) and Billy Hayes (Mitcham and Morden CLP, A065571) for the CAC. CLPs have until June 28th to make nominations.

Further information will be added to this webpage in due course. If you have any questions please get in touch with us at [email protected].

National Constitutional Committee

Elections for three representatives on the National Constitutional Committee will take place at Party Conference in a vote of party delegates. Two of these elections will be for places voted on in elections last year. Momentum will be supporting Jabran Hussain (Bradford West, L0058388), Gary Heather (Islington North, A006966), Stephen Marks (Oxford East, A241053). Please note that the NCC is gender-balanced, with candidates elected on a staggered basis each year at Conference.

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