A plan to reduce the unions’ share of the vote at party conference to below 50 per cent to allow registered but non-paying “supporters” a say in decisions was rewritten on the eve of a conference vote effectively to kick it into the long grass.
The decision by the party’s ruling National Executive Committee to ditch the plan, backed by Labour leader Ed Miliband, followed weeks of behind-the-scenes lobbying by MPs and union leaders who warned that it would create unnecessary divisions and pander to the right-wing press.
Instead of taking a percentage of votes from unions, the supporters’ share of between 3 per cent and 10 per cent will be spread across MPs, members and the unions, maintaining the unions’ overall proportion of influence.
Details of how the new system will function have yet to be worked out in talks given a practical deadline of next March.
A trigger point of 50,000 supporters signed up to the party’s aims and objectives will be needed to kick-start the scheme, a hurdle not built into the original proposal.
Delegates to the party conference in Liverpool voted overwhelmingly in favour of the watered-down plan.
Members, not supporters, will still choose MPs and councillors.
Other proposals will reduce the way in which some party members have multiple votes for the leadership following last year’s election in which some MPs and members of unions or affiliated organisations were able to cast up to six votes.
Unions also refused to open up their membership lists to the party officials, which Mr Miliband sought to allow direct communication with levy-paying trade union members.
