A proposal to allow non-party members of the public a vote in Labour’s leadership and policy decisions is among a wide-ranging package of options for the biggest organisational change since its formation in 1918.
A consultation paper on the “refounding” of the Labour Party is being sent to members with a proposal that fundamental changes should be made at this year’s annual conference in Liverpool. It charts the decline of the party’s electoral appeal, membership, campaigning and finances together with changing voting patterns and concludes that: “Society has moved on since 1918, but Labour’s institutions and practices haven’t always kept up.”
In a foreword to the 10,000-word document, Labour leader Ed Miliband says: We must repair, restore and reform our party to meet the challenges ahead. I do not want to break the party up. I want to build it up.
“We must look to our own traditions as a community-based grassroots party where the voices of individual members and trade unionists were always valued. But we must also widen our horizons to include our supporters and the wider public. They must have their say in the future too.”
Peter Hain, chair of the National Policy Forum who compiled the consultation paper, writes that it is “imperative that we use this period of opposition to leapfrog the other parties by refounding our own” and that the task will be “much bigger” than simply amending Clause 4.
In what he describes as a “pivotal moment” for Labour, Mr Hain says: “The pieces of the political jigsaw have been shaken up and it is far from clear what pattern they may form when they settle.”
He writes: “The analysis in this consultation paper pulls no punches, so expect to feel unease as you confront some facts that we might all prefer to forget, but cannot afford to ignore.”
Four “Big Questions” on how to change in order to stand a chance of winning power again are set against a background of decline: four million votes lost between 1997 and 2005; the lowest share of the poll in 2010 since 1922; fewer voters wedded to one particular party and the disappearance of the traditional “core voter”; the disappearance of the “two-horse race” of the Tories and Labour which dominated post-war 20th century British politics and the emergence of “kaleidoscopic” electoral contests with the Tories, Liberal Democrats, Welsh and Scottish nationalists, UK Independence Party, the British National Party, Greens and independents as opponents.
Britain has one of the lowest rates of party membership in Europe, down to 1.3 per cent of voters compared to 4 per cent in 1983 and a European average in 2001 of 5 per cent.
“We have to find new ways to reach out to supporters who might have joined in earlier times, perhaps by encouraging the development of a body of registered supporters who are not ready to join the party,” says Mr Hain.
In 2010, Labour had half as many members as it did 20 years ago at 150,000, compared with a peak of 400,000 in 1997. While recent elections have confirmed the correlation between local campaigning and electoral success, fewer members are involved in canvassing, leafleting, attending meetings, signing petitions or displaying election posters. Union activists in constituencies are “few and far between”, while there is a need to recreate a “much more organic link between the party and the trade union movement”.
Mr Hain says: “In today’s much more diffuse, individualistic political culture, how can we maximise the potential for participation by ‘Labour supporters’ – those who would not join the party, but who could be mobilised to come back and work for us? How do we manage this in a way that does not undermine the rights of ‘full’ members?”
In policymaking, the supremacy of the annual conference has been undermined by “the smaller number of constituency parties sending delegates, the increasing concentration of union votes in fewer and fewer hands and a command and control culture which was sometimes seen at odds with dissent and diversity. Too often, party members felt they had no influence on policy outcomes.”
Mr Hain identifies the four big questions as: creating an outward looking party, giving a voice to members, renewing the party’s structures and process and winning back power. Members are asked to consider whether constituency parties are “hamstrung by too much procedure and process” rather than focused on political debate and campaigning. Greater engagement between union members and elected representatives and with local community groups should be examined along with the role of councillors.
“How can we increase our membership and how can we give our members more say and with that, more responsibility? How can we use the new social media and opportunities for online access to give members more direct ways of having their say?”
The consultation paper invites submissions on the role of MPs in party organisation and policy and on who should attend and vote at conference. “Do we need to change the voting process and system? Should conference have more debate and take more decisions on policy?
“Many who are not joiners are nevertheless Labour supporters: should we extend our party’s reach by giving them a voice and if so, how?”
On the role of the unions in party renewal, Mr Hain says: “Thanks to our relationship with the trade unions, three million people are affiliated to the Labour Party, giving us far greater reach than any other party, so it’s vital that the link is preserved, but how can the party better reach out into workplace life, to involve individual affiliated members more directly?”
Suggestions are invited as to how the party can build stronger links with campaigning organisations and pressure groups and involve them in policy-making; on reaching out to “the new generation”; and to ensure women are properly represented in politics.
New methods of campaigning need to be examined, learning lessons from constituencies such as Edgbaston, Gedling, Barking and Morley and Outwood, which delivered notably successful campaigns against the national trend at the last election.
Comments are also invited on the possibility of MPs, MEPs, devolved assembly members and councillors being asked to sign a contract with their parties committing them to specific levels of campaigning, community engagement and voter contact.
The formal consultation ends on Friday June 24. Submissions should be sent to Peter Hain MP, Refounding Labour, 39 Victoria Street, London SW1 OHA
