27 May 2020 | UK NEWS
The Labour Party has declared the winner in the race to become the party’s new General Secretary. It was announced that former General Secretary David Evans would take the role. The National Executive Committee convened yesterday to reach a decision as to who would get the position.
Evans, who formerly worked for Labour under Tony Blair, was thought to be the Labour leadership’s preferred candidate out of the six-person shortlist.
He replaces Jennie Formby in the position, after she resigned by mutual consent. The Corbyn ally had left the position following allegations of mishandling of anti-Semitism cases within the party, amid claims that she had been actively involved in covering up allegations.
The replacement of a left-wing General Secretary with a more centrist candidate is a significant change of direction for the party, falling in line with the ideas of its new leadership. The move has caused some dissent within left-wing Labour factions.
According to the BBC, an NEC source from the party’s left wing warned the leadership that “members won’t forgive them if they allow a hard-right General Secretary to wage factional warfare” against them.
An official e-mail from the Forward Momentum campaign to all its members reflected this sentiment. It said that the appointment of Evans as General Secretary was a “forceful reminder that the left needs to get organised and fight to defend our position and values within the party”. They also claimed that Evans supported “the marginalisation of trade unions within the party during the New Labour years.”
The Forward Momentum campaign was set up as a time-limited ‘movement-within-a-movement’ to continue what they referred to as the “democratisation” of party structures, following the party’s electoral defeat last year. It has previously blamed excess centralisation of decision-making structures and a lack of accountability to individual party members for the Momentum campaign’s failure to convince the electorate to back the Labour Party in two successive General Elections.
One of Mr Evans’ first tasks as the new General Secretary will be to attempt to solve the anti-Semitism crisis that had plagued the previous administration. The equalities watchdog, known as the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, is due to publish a report soon regarding anti-Semitism in the party over the last four years. It will be Evans’ responsibility to respond to this report. Sir Keir Starmer, the new Leader of the Opposition, has committed to accepting its recommendations and setting up an independent complaints process.
In response to his appointment, Mr Evans said in a statement: “We face a defining period in the history of our great party, with a global pandemic, an imminent recession and a mountain to climb to win the next election. Through the strength of our movement, I know we can rise to this challenge.”
Starmer said of Evans’ new position: “I look forward to working with David to build a team that can help us restore trust with the British people and build a team that can win the next election.”
The other candidates were Andrew Fisher (who had worked as Head of Policy for former party leader Jeremy Corbyn), Karin Christiansen (a former General Secretary of the affiliated Co-operative Party), Andrew Byron Taylor (the former head of the Labour group on Basildon Council), former MEP Neena Gill, and Amanda Martin (President of the National Education Union).
The move is being seen by some Labour insiders as the latest move by Sir Keir to stamp his authority on the party he now leads, in a break with the Corbyn years. We will bring you further reaction to this appointment as it comes in.
