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Select and Parliamentary committee vacancies and elections: latest

22/10/2010, 11:47:16 AM

From: O’DONOVAN, Martin

Sent: 19 October 2010 17:00

Subject: UPDATE: VACANCIES AHEAD OF BALLOT NEXT TUESDAY

FAO Labour MPs

As colleagues will be aware we have a number of vacancies to various bodies that we need to fill in the coming days.

As agreed at last night’s PLP meeting the ballots for every vacancy where a ballot is required will take place next Tuesday (26 October) from 10am-5pm in the PLP Office.

We have four different categories of vacancies:

1. Select Committee vacancies

2. Parliamentary Committee vacancies

3. House of Commons Commission vacancy

4. Vacancies to serve on international Bodies (Council of Europe, NATO and OSCE)

In every case the deadline for nominations is next Monday (25 October) at 5pm. The deadline for agreeing proxy votes in 7pm on the same day.

1. Select Committees – expressions of interest

Following the announcement of the new shadow ministerial team we have a number of vacancies on Select Committees. Many thanks to everyone who has already expressed an interest.

We have the following vacancies – please email me with your expressions of interest: (more…)

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PLP Parliamentary Committee “vote for me” – Geraint Davies

19/10/2010, 05:35:47 PM

From: DAVIES, Geraint
Sent: 18 October 2010 11:36
Subject: PLP Committee – Geraint Davies MP

Dear Colleague,

As we move forward with our new Leadership team it’s important that the priorities and views of backbench members of the PLP are heard and reflected.

The Parliamentary Committee is being reformed and will act as a means of providing the Leadership with regular feedback from across the PLP and wider movement.

I am putting my name forward having represented a marginal London seat fighting the Tories and now a traditional seat in Wales challenged by the Liberal Democrats.

Therefore, I appreciate the range of local concerns amongst varying electorates we need to address to regain power. As a reincarnated MP, I am also keen to reflect the views of new MPs who bring fresh insights from the world outside Westminster whilst harnessing the talents of experienced members.

Your views and the issues in your constituency are a critical barometer to help Labour get back on track as we approach elections next year for our Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament and councils across England.

I am a Labour Co-operative and GMB supported MP with a background in industry so appreciate the need for us to carry the support of the wider movement and to bring confidence in our economic and industrial policy.

Our main resource is the skills, experience and energy of our PLP. If elected I would:

1 Listen to your views and concerns and be an approachable committee member accessible to all back-benchers
2. Be representative providing a drop in surgery and drop off/e mail feedback etc
3. Reflect varying opinion across all wings of the Party and the priorities of marginal and traditional seats
4. Be a strong & effective voice for back-bench opinion to the Leadership rooted in the breadth and depth of opinion across the PLP
5. Help ensure the committee acts as a critical friend.
6. Be accountable through regular report backs after meetings
7. Be active & visible in the Chamber and PLP

The Condems’ reckless and ideologically driven cuts programme alongside its gerrymandering agenda to gag the communities worst hit needs all our best efforts to bring Britain home to Labour.

The steady drumbeat of the Tory story that Labour left the cupboard bare has become more deep-rooted. That is why all of us in the PLP share a responsibility to set the record straight and regain the upper hand.

I hope you will support me with one of your votes and would be happy to discuss your views and priorities with you on xxxxxxxxxxx.

Yours truly,

Geraint Davies MP

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The first salvo of the latest PLP election campaign

15/10/2010, 01:57:04 PM

Men jostle and climb to meet the bristling fire.
Lines of grey, muttering faces, masked with fear,
They leave their trenches, going over the top,
While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists,
And hope, with furtive eyes and grappling fists,
Flounders in mud. O Jesus, make it stop!

But, no. It begins again. Been and gone the select committee elections and the shadow cabinet elections and the leadership elections. Each of them fuelled by endless barrages of letters and texts and calls and, above all, emails.

Now comes the first salvo of the new election: that for the half dozen places on the PLP’s backbench Parliamentary committee. (more…)

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Select committee vacancies caused by front bench appointments

15/10/2010, 11:34:46 AM

We have been asked what happens to elected Labour members of select committees now that many of them have been appointed to the front bench.

The short answer is that there are fresh elections for the newly created places. On one select committee (BIS), the entire Labour cohort of new intakers (Luciana Berger, Jack Dromey, Chi Onwurah and Rachel Reeves) has been catapulted to shadow ministerial stardom. On most of the others, only a couple of places are at stake.

The full details are set out in the email below, to Labour MPs from PLP secretary, Martin O’Donovan. (more…)

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Timetable for elections to the PLP Parliamentary committee

14/10/2010, 08:00:49 PM

We have been asked about the timetable and process for the election of the six members of the PLP Parliamentary committee. This is the group of backbenchers who meet weekly with the leader to keep him in touch with the views of the PLP rank-and-file.

The last time we were in opposition, the Parliamentary committee was the shadow cabinet. Standing orders have now changed to allow it to continue as a backbench body.

The timetable for the election is set out in the email below, from Martin O’Donovan, the PLP secretary.

(Tony Lloyd was elected unopposed as PLP chair).

From: O’DONOVAN, Martin
Sent: 12 October 2010 14:26
Subject: Reminder: PLP Chair and Parliamentary Committee elections

FAO Labour MPs

Dear Colleagues

Please find below a reminder of the timetables for the election of a PLP Chair and the new Parliamentary Committee:

PLP Chair
Nominations opened yesterday, and please note that nominations close TOMORROW (Wednesday) at 6pm. Full timetable is as follows:

Open nominations 9.00am Monday, 11 October
Close of nominations 6.00pm Wednesday, 13 October
Appointment of a proxy 7.00pm Monday, 18 October
Ballot 10.00am to 5.00pm Tuesday, 19 October

Parliamentary Committee
The timetable is as follows:

Open nominations 10.00am Wednesday, 20 October
Close of nominations 5.00pm Monday, 25 October
Appointment of a proxy 7.00pm Monday, 25 October
Ballot 10.00am to 5.00pm Tuesday, 26 October

Best wishes

Martin O’Donovan
Returning Officer and PLP Secretary

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Fiona MacTaggart’s email to Tory MP Mary MacLeod

14/10/2010, 06:30:04 PM

It is expressed with subtlety and elegance, but the message from Fiona MacTaggart to new Tory MP, Mary MacLeod, is clear: if you’ve got more than a tokenistic interest in the cause of women in Parliament, join the Labour party.

From: MACTAGGART, Fiona
Sent: 13 October 2010 15:11
To: MACLEOD, Mary
Subject: APPG women in parliament

Dear Mary,

Thank you for your invitation to become a founding member of an APPG women in parliament. I am writing to decline the invitation and to explain why.

AS you are a new member you may not be aware of the existence of the women’s Parliamentary Labour Party, which I chair, and which has been a powerful force for change on issues ranging from women’s representation in our party to hours and facilities in the house.

My experience of non party groups, such as the 300 group, on these issues has been that they have not been able to have the same impact as party based networks and I would be reluctant to support a move which risks over time diluting the effective work which PLP women have accomplished. Now that there are a greater number of women on the Coalition government benches I would really welcome a stronger voice for you within your party and my belief is that this is the best strategy for advancing the cause of women in parliament. Our party based groups can then work together within our parties and across parties, and also with the women in smaller parties. I have been acutely aware that every political group which only has one representative, is represented by a women and have tried to include them in appropriate activities.

I would have hoped to discuss this with colleagues at a PLP women’s meeting but unfortunately your email was sent 10 minutes after the end of our last meeting and we are not due to have another one for nearly three weeks, a longer gap than we normally have, because that meeting is due to elect a new chair following my appointment to the front bench.

In the meantime I would like to meet you, with other officers of the PLP women’s group to discuss how PLP women can best work with women in other parties. We have already done so on specific issues, eg IPSA and its impact on women and families.

I am circulating this response to colleagues to make them aware of my response.

Yours ever

Fiona Mactaggart Chair PLP women.

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Tony Lloyd re-elected unopposed as chair of the PLP

14/10/2010, 10:33:56 AM

As the email below notes, Tony Lloyd has been re-elected unopposed as chair of the PLP.

The last time Labour was in opposition, the “parliamentary committee” was the elected shadow cabinet. Standing orders have now changed, though, such that the parliamentary committee continues to exist as it did in government: six elected backbenchers who meet the leader weekly, with the PLP chair, to represent backbench opinion.

This cements Lloyd’s position as the most powerful and influential PLP chair of the modern era.

He also chairs the weekly meetings of the PLP and mediates the increasingly fractious relationship between MPs and IPSA.

Lloyd ran unsuccessfully for the office he now holds several times over many years. He was then part of the soft-left resistance to the Blairite autocracy. He was loyal to Brown, though, and will be pivotal to Miliband.

FAO Labour MPs

Dear Colleague

At 6pm this evening nominations closed in the election for the Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Nominations were received for one candidate, Tony Lloyd MP.

Tony Lloyd MP has therefore been duly re-elected to serve as Chair of the PLP.

Best wishes

Martin

Martin O’Donovan
Returning Officer and PLP Secretary

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David Cameron is all talk and no trousers, says Karen Butler

13/10/2010, 05:00:51 PM

He looks the part. He sounds the part. So what is it about David Cameron that makes him a less fearsome opponent than perhaps he should be?

There are plenty of attack lines that we like to believe about DC. He seems intellectually lightweight, incurious even, and sometimes astoundingly short on detail. He doesn’t seem to have any real beliefs or ideology and he rarely stands up well to interrogation. But these things can be hidden, even from himself, behind the pomp and the power, the celebrity and the blow-dried, well-suited veneer.

But last week on Uncut Dan Hodges articulated one of those truths that is both surprisingly new yet instantly recognisable: Cameron is a bottler.?? The child benefit row saw Cameron fail to withstand even a single day of rightwing criticism – something that his strategists will not just have been expecting but banking on, following their clever move to dare Labour’s new leader to defend benefits for the wealthy. (more…)

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The new generation front bench: Ed pays his debts

12/10/2010, 04:30:04 PM

Where better to seek clues about Ed Miliband’s new generation politics than Ed Miliband’s new generation of Labour MPs?

A quick look at how they voted in the leadership election and what has happened to them in the fortnight since is instructive.

A scan of the voting list reveals 29 new MPs first preferencing David, against 23 supporting his brother. Already, this is interesting. It shows that new MPs were disproportionately more likely to first preference Ed than was the PLP as a whole. Suggesting that perhaps he really is a leader for the new generation.

(New MPs were more likely to first preference both Milibands than was the PLP as a whole, but the difference was more pronounced for Ed, whom 4.7% more new MPs supported than did the PLP as a whole, compared to 3.3% for David).

Certainly, the politics of many of the more talented new generation Milibandistas do not appear to square with the compass-lite new tribunism that Ed has been preaching. The likes of Rachel Reeves, Emma Reynolds and Michael Dugher are straight out of the New Labour/old right tradition. Ed should not have been their natural choice. (more…)

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Spinning banned – official

12/10/2010, 02:59:19 PM

Spinning has been banned. Official. At the inaugural meeting of Ed Miliband’s new shadow cabinet the law was laid down.

“I will not be briefing against colleagues”, he said, “and I do not expect colleagues to be briefing against others or myself”.

Factions are also out. Apparently. “We will have no return to the factionalism of the past”, he decreed. Though how this latter is to be policed is less clear. Images of Rosie Winterton pouncing on unsuspecting colleagues spring to mind:

“You there, by the bar. Move along. Two’s company. Three is a faction”.

No factions. No briefing. Let’s see how Westminster’s plotters respond to this edict in tomorrow’s papers.

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