Grassroots Labour members have given a broad welcome to party leader Ed Miliband’s plan to widen the process of internal decision making to the public.
Though details of the proposal, floated by Mr Miliband at the last meeting of the National Policy Forum (27 November), are unclear, forum members speaking to Tribune shared Mr Miliband’s desire to “reach out beyond your membership” and give non-party and non-union levy payers a say.
Shadow Welsh secretary Peter Hain is consulting on the move as part of his review of the party machine.
Ellie Reeves of the National Executive Committee, who is vice-chair of Mr Hain’s review, said: “I don’t have a problem with opening that up to the wider community, whether inviting levy payers or community groups to take part in that policy process.” Non-members would not take part in the NPF but could sit in on local policy forums, she suggested.
Daniel Zeichner, a member of the National Policy Forum since its inception, said outside participation was an important principle: “I’m not sure there’s anything particularly new about this. [Former Labour general secretary] Tom Sawyer used to talk about the triangle of party leadership, party members and the public.”
Alon Or-bach praised the “Big Conversation” consultation of the early 2000s and said the new policy-making must also be inclusive, but more regular. “What I hope Ed is proposing is a far deeper engagement with regular contact.”
All three NPF members, however, insisted that Labour members should have the final say on policy-making and the only say in internal elections.
Mr Zeichner, who was the Labour candidate in Cambridge at this year’s general election, described the Conservative Party’s use of an open primary in which non-party members chose their local candidate as “ludicrous” and said: “That’s not a serious way to choose your candidate or make your policies.”
Mr Or-bach said: “Voting in any internal election is the prerogative of members – I think that has to be maintained.”
They also said that a record should be kept of how the NPF responds to ideas, and complained about the current system under which suggestions disappear into a “black hole”.
Mr Hain told the NPF that he thought it was important to have an audit trail for policy submissions. He also promised that the NPF would have more resources, and suggested setting up an intranet for
forum members to discuss policy positions electronically.
