Inside « Labour Uncut

Uncut’s open letter to PLP chair, Tony Lloyd

29/06/2010, 12:47:26 PM

Dear Tony,

At last night’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party you told MPs off for leaking information to websites. Passing information to websites, even Labour-friendly websites, is not in the comradely spirit, you said.

A particular example you gave was the reporting of Labour MPs who didn’t vote in the select committee elections. You said that this was definitely not in the comradely spirit.

You framed the point in general terms. We thank you for your delicacy. But Labour Uncut is the website in question. The select committee non-voters was our story. And it is only Uncut which has been publishing reports from PLP meetings and leaked round robin emails sent to Labour MPs. (more…)

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Second tranch of PLP select committee elections

29/06/2010, 12:20:37 PM

FAO Labour MPs

At 7pm this evening the deadline passed for nominations to the Labour vacancies on the select committees.

Please find below three key pieces of information:

– the list of nominations where we are proceeding to ballot.

– details of how you submit a short statement (200 words) to the PLP Office so that we can send all statements out together

– information about proxy voting (more…)

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David Miliband’s desert island discs

25/06/2010, 01:00:08 PM

We asked each of the leadership candidates to choose 8 favourite tracks, a book and a luxury which they might take to a desert island.

We will be publishing them one candidate at a time.

David Miliband is first because he sent his back first. (more…)

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90% turnout, but Diane Abbott fails to vote in PLP select committee elections

24/06/2010, 12:03:43 PM

Labour Uncut has seen an unpublished list of MPs who failed to vote in yesterday’s select committee elections.

There were 25 non-voters, one of whom was leadership candidate Diane Abbott. Turnout in the election was 90%.

In the you-scratch-my-back world of the PLP, not voting in this secret ballot was a tactical mistake by Abbott, who was in the House of Commons during the voting hours of 10am till 5pm. (more…)

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Labour select committee election results

23/06/2010, 11:46:10 PM

Following today’s ballot the following colleagues (in alphabetical order) have been elected to the following select committees:

BIS – Luciana Berger, Jack Dromey, Chi Onwurah, Rachel Reeves.

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT – David Cairns, Paul Farrelly, Alan Keen, Jim Sheridan, Tom Watson (more…)

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Cuts to food and trips: MPs to share the public sector pain

23/06/2010, 10:24:32 AM

The Speaker, John Bercow, last night wrote to MPs pledging extra cuts to House of Commons spending “in the light of increased financial constraints on the public sector”.

He told MPs that “the House of Commons Commission has agreed to cut £12 million from the budget for the House in the current year. This marks the start of a fundamental review of expenditure, which will deliver further savings over the next three years.

The savings to be made this year are 5 per cent more than the Commission originally planned, and will reduce estimated spending for 2010/11 to £219 million. This action follows the Commission’s decision in December 2009, to cut House expenditure by 9% by the end of 2012/13.” (more…)

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Back to school for today’s select committee elections

23/06/2010, 09:27:16 AM

It’s back to school for Labour MPs. Term has started and now it’s time to choose options.

Last night, PLP secretary Martin O’Donovan sent out the rules for the next stage of choosing Labour’s select committee members. Those who put their names down for committees which proved unpopular have been elected unopposed.

But there won’t be enough chairs in the classroom for maths: it’s almost two to a seat at the treasury. (It does look good on your CV though).

Boys dominate PE and art in the DCMS nominations, with no female candidates. But most pupils went for more holidays: international development, defence and foreign affairs – the top trip committees – were as over-subscribed as the most prestigious and serious one: treasury.

Predictably less popular are science and technology, public administration and environmental audit. Empty desks and unfilled places abound. Graham Stringer, Paul Flynn and Martin Caton were the only ones to put their names forward in each case.
Each candidate’s 200 word ‘pick me’ has now been sent to the PLP. Interminable self-promoting emails have been dispatched. Surprising numbers of them have been read and considered by their peers. And they have till 5pm this evening to vote.

The full document sent out to MPs last night is here.

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Rules and candidates for today’s select committee elections

23/06/2010, 09:23:26 AM

FAO Labour MPs
At 7pm this evening (Tue 22 June) the deadline passed for nominations to the Labour vacancies on the select committees.

Please find below four key pieces of information:

– the list of nominations where we are proceeding to ballot.
– the list of the remaining committees, including those colleagues who are now

ELECTED unopposed to fill vacancies.
– details of how you submit a short statement (200 words) to the PLP Office so that we can send all statements out together

– information about proxy voting

We will now move to elect the vacancies on the following committees in a ballot in the PLP Office between 10am and 5pm on Wednesday. The names of all the candidates is also attached.

LIST OF NOMINATIONS

1. BIS (6 nominations for 4 vacancies)

(Luciana Berger, Jack Dromey, Julie Elliott, Gregg McClymont, Chi Onwurah, Rachel Reeves)

2. CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT (6 nominations for 5 vacancies)

(David Cairns, Jim Dowd, Paul Farrelly, Alan Keen, Jim Sheridan, Tom Watson)

3. DEFENCE (8 nominations for 5 vacancies)

(Thomas Docherty, Michael Dugher, David Hamilton, Dai Havard, Madeleine Moon, Alison Seabeck, Gisela Stuart, John Woodcock)

4. FOREIGN AFFAIRS (10 nominations for 5 vacancies)

(Ann Clwyd, Jeremy Corbyn, Mike Gapes, Fabian Hamilton, Mark Hendrick, Sandra Osborne, Yasmin Qureshi, Emma Reynolds, Frank Roy, David Watts)

5. HOME AFFAIRS (5 nominations for 4 vacancies)

(Steve McCabe, Alun Michael, Bridget Phillipson, Karl Turner, David Winnick)

6. INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (9 nominations for 5 vacancies)

(Hugh Bayley, Russell Brown, Richard Burden, Michael McCann, Ann McKechin, Pamela Nash, Anas Sarwar, Virendra Sharma, Marsha Singh)

7. TRANSPORT (7 nominations for 4 vacancies)

(Lilian Greenwood, Tom Harris, Julie Hilling, Kelvin Hopkins, Jonathan Reynolds, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith)

8. TREASURY (9 nominations for 5 vacancies)

(Gordon Banks, John Cryer, Mark Lazarowicz, Andy Love, John Mann, Michael Meacher, George Mudie, Ian Murray, Chuka Umunna)

9. WORK AND PENSIONS (5 nominations for 4 vacancies)

(Karen Buck, Margaret Curran, Kate Green, Shabana Mahmood, Teresa Pearce)

MPs NOW ELECTED TO REMAINING VACANCIES

1. CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES – Nic Dakin, Pat Glass, Liz Kendall, Ian Mearns, Lisa Nandy. NO VACANCIES REMAIN.

2. COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT – Heidi Alexander, Clive Efford, Toby Perkins, Chris Williamson. NO VACANCIES REMAIN.

3. ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE – Tom Greatrex, Albert Owen, John Robertson, Alan Whitehead. ONE VACANCY REMAINS.

4. ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT – Martin Caton. THREE VACANCIES REMAIN.

5. HEALTH – Rosie Cooper, Fiona Mactaggart, Grahame Morris, Valerie Vaz. ONE VACANCY REMAINS.

6. JUSTICE – Chris Evans, Sian James, Linda Riordan. TWO VACANCIES REMAIN.

7. NORTHERN IRELAND – Gemma Doyle, Stephen Hepburn, Kate Hoey, Ian Lavery, Stephen Pound. NO VACANCIES REMAIN.

8. POLITICAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM – Sheila Gilmore, Tristram Hunt, Catherine McKinnell, Peter Soulsby. NO VACANCIES REMAIN.

9. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION – Paul Flynn. FOUR VACANCIES REMAIN.

10. PUBLIC ACCOUNTS – Eric Joyce, Austin Mitchell, Anne McGuire, Nick Smith. NO VACANCIES REMAIN.

11. SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – Graham Stringer. THREE VACANCIES REMAIN.

12. SCOTTISH AFFAIRS – Cathy Jamieson, Jim McGovern, Fiona O’Donnell, Lindsay Roy. NO VACANCIES REMAIN.

STATEMENTS BY CANDIDATES

if you are standing in a contested ballot on Wednesday the PLP Office will be collating short (200 word) statements to be circulated to all colleagues and avoid too much email traffic. So, if you are in a contested ballot as of 7pm, please send your 200 words to me on this email address by 3pm tomorrow. All statements will then be circulated at 4pm tomorrow.

PROXY VOTES

If you need to arrange a proxy vote for Wednesday’s election please contact me by Tuesday at 5pm on this email address.

A reminder that candidates who are unsuccessful in Wednesday’s ballot may apply for remaining vacancies, as may any eligible colleague who has yet to express an interest. I will circulate the full list of vacancies on Thursday morning.

Martin O’Donovan
Director of Unit and PLP Secretary

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Breakfast at the Cinnamon: a recipe for cash

22/06/2010, 11:26:32 AM

The cinnamon club is an up market Indian restaurant next door to the department for education, just across the road from Westminster Abbey. At 300 yards or so, it is one of the closest restaurants to the House of Commons. Once, it had a Michelin star.

At any sitting, its large, airy dining room will be more than smattered with political big fish, their media parasites and the big business interests who put the oxygen in the tank.

At breakfast, while the ladies who lunch are still painting their nails, the political wildlife are the only ones there.

This morning was typical. Steve Richards of the Independent was with John Pienaar of the BBC. Anyone who knows Pienaar will not be surprised that he was wolfing a full English. Richards, still digesting a big lunch in the House of Commons with David Miliband yesterday, was more restrained. (more…)

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Burnham to manage England website team

21/06/2010, 04:38:22 PM

As reported previously, Andy Burnham’s website was hopeless: no-style over no-substance. So we were pleased when we heard the site had gone fully live and was now populated.

Unbelievably, the site has got worse. Honestly. Gone is the two-tone picture of him looking like Kraftwerk, and in its place his flagship leadership campaign, Save the Future Jobs Fund. A worthwhile campaign which includes a petition. A petition that publishes its signatories online. A petition that lets you choose not to join his mailing list, and publishes this online too. A petition that is signed by twenty people. Which is published online.

We’re all for transparency but come on Team Burnham, you’re making your boy look silly. The Milibands have armies of bright young things, gaggles of them, chanting and tweeting and strategising. They’ve got pictures, they’ve got videos, they’re on twitter, they’re on flickr, and they’re on facebook. Even Ed Balls, who only launched his website last week, has done a better job than Burnham, although the Coronation Street themed banner is a little dodge. Diane Abbott’s website is yet to be populated with any real content – and it’s still better than Burnham’s.

(more…)

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