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Posts Tagged ‘PLP’

A little dignity and a little pride from Labour’s MPs would be welcome

12/02/2015, 10:14:30 PM

by Rob Marchant

While Labour has not had a brilliant last couple of weeks in the election campaign – its barely-coherent policy on the NHS being a case in point – the jury is still emphatically out on who will win, thanks largely to this parliament’s highly unusual electoral arithmetic.

With things so tight in the polls, a big part of winning for both main parties is surely about their MPs keeping their heads down and their eyes on the prize. In other words, it is as much about thinking that they will win and convincing others of that fact, as pounding the streets of Britain on the “Labour doorstep”.

So discipline is vital. The Tories, now battle-hardened after “holding the line” through five years of government, seem to be making a reasonable fist of it (even Boris Johnson has had the good sense to absent himself abroad, rather than be a distraction to the Tory campaign).

Labour, well, not so much.

Not only does there seem to be something of a downbeat mood in the PLP but, in some cases, things have moved further.

To wit, there is little less edifying a sight than frontbenchers deliberately putting themselves in the newspapers, as ways not of promoting Labour’s election campaign or manifesto, but themselves. As candidates in a future leadership election, for which a date has not even been set and which may not happen for another five or ten years.

(more…)

Posted in Uncut | 10 Comments »

Breathe in, breathe out

11/11/2014, 02:03:24 PM

by Mike Amesbury

Unity, discipline, being on message (with a coherent message), self-belief and a vision of hope are essential ingredients of a winning campaign. Over the last week a small and cowardly bunch of Labour MPs seem to be suffering from a collective dose of amnesia.

Take your minds back to the wilderness years of 18 years of opposition, the self-indulgent politics of many in our ranks and our disastrous elections campaigns of the 1980s and early 90s. These were characterised by regular mishaps, media briefings and counter briefings; with shadow ministers contradicting each other and untimely sniping about our own leadership.

Not only were we letting ourselves down, more importantly we let our supporters, potential supporters and nation suffer the consequences of Thatcherism. Please, please, wake up and smell the coffee and don’t do this again.

I, for one, am pretty determined to cheer on every Tory and Lib Dem defeat throughout the night of the 7^th May 2015 and the early hours of the 8^th. I don’t want to mark the day after my 46^th birthday with pictures of this Prime Minister Cameron all over media, I don’t want another four years of him unleashing further hell on our nation.

For all its faults, (and there were quite a few) the Blair years were known for professional and disciplined campaigns – 1997, 2001, and 2005 (give or take the odd punch from John Prescott).

The harsh lessons of the wilderness years became engrained in the DNA of the Labour party. The electorate does not like disunity. A common joke amongst officials (of which I was one) and front benchers were references to Peter Mandelson instructing us to “breathe in and breathe out”.

Call me old fashioned if you will, but I have always been keen on winning elections in order to implement a Labour manifesto. We won an unprecedented three successive Labour victories, built a record amount of new schools and hospitals, introduced the minimum wage and implemented measures such as tax credits while reducing child poverty. This discipline combined with staying on a Labour message is needed now more than ever.

A Labour message that talks about, saving the NHS, building a million new homes, increasing the minimum wage, scrapping the bedroom tax, freezing energy bills and creating a responsible and fair economy for all. These are the only briefings that I want to hear as an activist.

Start breathing it in and out over the coming months, in the media, at public meetings and on the doorstep. Let us fight to be the country we should be, one that is prosperous and fair for all, one that offers my young son better opportunities than I had. For this we need a Labour prime minister making that victory speech on the 8^thMay 2015.

Mike Amesbury is a Manchester City Councillor, a National Policy Forum Rep and former Labour North West Regional Official

Posted in Grassroots | 6 Comments »

The inside story of the Labour reshuffle that never was

15/10/2014, 08:18:32 PM

Interesting rumours have been trickling out of the PLP and Labour HQ over the past fortnight about the seemingly imminent reshuffle. Uncut has pieced together various accounts to give a view of just what has been going on.

Earlier this month, amid the fall-out from the Scottish referendum and Labour conference, as MPs’ discontent with Ed Miliband bubbled up into the press, a plan was hatched by the leader’s inner circle. A move so bold that it would reset the political clock, seize the attention of the journalists and demonstrate Ed Miliband’s leadership credentials.

The long awaited reshuffle was overdue and its centre-piece was to be Ed Balls’ ejection from his brief as shadow chancellor.

The tensions between the leader’s office and Ed Balls’ team have been well-documented. Ed Balls was not Ed Miliband’s first choice as shadow chancellor – that was Alan Johnson – and from the leaked e-mails last year, where Ed Balls was described as a “nightmare,” by Ed Miliband’s advisers, to the two Eds’ splits over whether to retain the 50p rate of tax and their widely aired disagreement on whether to back or bin HS2, the relationship has always been uneasy.

With Labour trailing the Tories by twenty points on the economy and discontent on the left and right of the party with Labour’s economic offer, the rationale for action was obvious.

Balls’ potential destination was unclear. One option canvassed was foreign secretary with Douglas Alexander becoming a full time general election co-ordinator. However, the preferred choice was a switch to home affairs, with his wife, Yvette Cooper, becoming shadow chancellor.

Come what may, Ed Balls would have been furious, but to cause trouble in the run-up to the general election would have been difficult. All the more so,if his wife was the shadow chancellor, a role it would have been difficult for Cooper to turn down, especially given her own ambitions to lead if Labour is defeated next year.

(more…)

Posted in Inside | 8 Comments »

New analysis of post-election PLP erodes Yvette’s leadership front-runner status

05/06/2014, 05:29:20 PM

Signs that preparations are being made in earnest for a future leadership campaign. The talk at the fringes of the Progress conference last Saturday was of succession and as John Rentoul has noted, the likely Chuka versus Yvette contest, if Labour loses the next election. The universal consensus is that the one racing certainty is that the next leader will not be an A.W.M. – Another White Male.

Now, Uncut has seen a detailed analysis compiled by consultants involved in the last leadership election, but unaffiliated at this stage for 2015, which suggests that one of Yvette’s big advantages might not be quite so advantageous after all. While Chuka leads on almost all poll measures with voters and non-activist members, Yvette has been assumed to hold a commanding lead in the PLP.

Partially, this is a consequence of the residual strength of the Brownite machine and partially the time Yvette has had to lobby and persuade her parliamentary peers. As a member of the 1997 intake she has had far longer to build a personal base of support in the PLP than Chuka.

However, according to this new analysis, the likely influx of new MPs will erode some of this advantage. If Labour does not become the largest party, but still does make some progress – as is flagged the most likely scenario in the analysis – the party will likely win between 270 and 290 seats (it currently holds 257 seats). This is based on various permutations of Lib Dem, Labour and Conservative performance.

It would entail Labour gaining 13 to 33 new seats. Added to the 82 Labour MPs elected in 2010 or after this would mean 95 to 115 MPs were from Chuka’s intake or later. On this basis there would still be a significant pre-2010 PLP majority of 175 MPs.

But these figures do not incorporate the large numbers of Labour MPs who have either confirmed they will stand down, or are currently considering their position. At the next election 64 Labour MPs will have been in service for over twenty years with 30 or more current MPs expected to stand down.

(more…)

Posted in Inside | 24 Comments »

Labour history uncut: Bye bye ILP

13/10/2013, 05:23:31 PM

by Peter Goddard and Atul Hatwal

After the October 1931 election, the Labour party survivors surveyed the smoking battlefield and counted the casualties.

Labour in Parliament had been almost entirely wiped out. Every member of the cabinet was gone, apart from the old stager George Lansbury and a young chap called Clement Attlee.

The men who had founded the Labour party had been removed wholesale from the leadership of the movement. And just for good measure, most of their most immediate successors had been culled too.

So, thanks to his unique qualification of ‘still being there’, 72 year old George Lansbury, seemed the natural, choice to take up the reins of leadership.

George Lansbury looks forward to having loads of space in the PLP common room

So imagine his surprise when, in a mark of the deep suspicion the party harboured for the emotional Lansbury, Arthur Henderson was elected unopposed as Labour leader despite not even being an MP.

Lansbury, for his part, became PLP chairman.

In practice however, the parliamentary platform meant the elderly Lansbury increasingly assumed the role of de facto leader over the even more elderly Henderson. This was partly because Henderson himself was often abroad, becoming more and more pre-occupied with international disarmament and the idea that Socialism wouldn’t be much use if Europe had been bombed to a charred ruin first.

More significantly for the party’s future was the appointment of Clement Attlee as Lansbury’s deputy chair in parliament.

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Posted in Uncut | 1 Comment »

Phil Woolas’ letter to George Howarth and the PLP

06/12/2010, 04:37:55 PM

Dear George

Further to our conversation, I am writing to thank you and through you, the PLP, for all of your efforts on my behalf.

I believe the outcome of the Election Court decision and the Judicial Review is devastating news not just for me personally but for the conduct of future elections. Through our efforts we have at least established that a Judicial Review of an Election Court decision in England for a Parliamentary Election is possible. There was never doubt that it is possible in Scotland and for local elections. We also overturned the outrageous precedent of the Oldham Election Court on the definition of what is personal comment and what is fair political comment. Unfortunately, the High Court did not follow the logic of their argument and overturn the finding regarding two of the election leaflet articles.

It was encouraging that we won on the costs with the Court ruling that each side should pay its own costs. As my legal team were acting for free and out of their conviction of my case and the importance of it, this will mean that I will be able to refund the bulk of the money that you helped to raise – around £50,000.

The judgement leaves the definition of fair political comment in uncertainty. The Election Court defined a meaning to my election leaflets that we do not accept. There is a huge difference, in my opinion between accusing the Liberal Democrats of pandering to extremism and supporting it. In any event, our argument was that this was fair political comment.

I am pleased that our Party Leader, Ed Miliband has supported the call for the Electoral Commission to review this area of the law. (more…)

Posted in Inside | 3 Comments »

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…)

Posted in Inside | No Comments »

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…)

Posted in Inside | No Comments »

Shadow cabinet: who will make the cut?

04/10/2010, 11:25:09 AM

This week we will finally find out who will make it into the new leaders opposition fighting force. The squad of 49 will be trimmed to 19. The mother of all popularity contests will culminate on Thursday, with 30 wannabe front benchers being sent back to the minors.

It is all too much for some members of the PLP to take. It only took a day to upset Bob Ainsworth. Tom Watson announced a pretty strict rule on twitter: send me unsolicited text messages and it’s game over.

Another member of the PLP, sick of the constant emailing, letter writing and texting sent this to the Uncut mobile:

XXXXX, just reminding you to vote for me in the Shadow Cabinet elections (the ballot opens today). David Lammy

I HAVE NEVER EVEN SPOKEN TO HIM, LET ALONE PROMISED TO VOTE FOR HIM.

* * *

I’m standing for shadow cabinet. Ed needs a strong team and I wld bring energy *and* experience. Pls will u consider supporting me? Thanks, Peter Hain

IMPERSONAL BUT AT LEAST POLITE.

Thursday can’t come soon enough, not only for the 49 who have thrown their hats into the ring, but for the rest of the PLP. The runners and riders are: (more…)

Posted in Inside | 2 Comments »

Eric Joyce on his journey to the shadow cabinet elections

22/09/2010, 09:00:27 AM

It’s often said that there are too few MPs with backgrounds other than purely politics. At first glance, the CVs of most former Labour cabinet ministers seem to confirm that. In fact, the Parliamentary Labour party is packed with people with other life experiences, from ex-miners like David Hamilton to teachers, social workers and – OK then – lawyers.

I think this largely unfounded perception of MP unwordliness stems from the way technocratic skills fuse with political patronage in contemporary government. That is not necessarily to be adversely critical; perhaps there is no other way. Tony and Gordon needed people in their cabinet with practical experience of how 21st century government works and naturally turned to people they’d trained up themselves. And while it’s been often remarked that it seems a bit strange for the Labour leadership to be contested by four people with essentially identical trajectories, two of them actually brothers, it’s fair to say that these people and others like them turned out to be very good at the job. (more…)

Posted in Uncut | 1 Comment »