14 November 2020 | UK NEWS
The elections for Labour’s ruling nation executive have produced a mix of results between the Labour factions. The NEC oversees the party’s policy-making process as well as influencing its overall direction.
Groups supportive of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer increased their numbers on the NEC. After the last round NEC elections, the Labour leader of the day had the support of eighteen members out of thirty eight, although one member of the other faction, Pete Willsman, was suspended effectively amounting to thirty-seven members.
Following this round of elections, Starmer supporters will have twenty out of thirty-nine members.
Former Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones also won the Welsh representative post, in another win for Starmer.
The Starmer-supporting ‘Labour To Win’ group said the results had “finally given Keir the solid majority on the NEC he needs to transform Labour and win the next election”. They added: “Now we need to make that dream a reality in CLPs up and down the country.”
However, Momentum backed left-wing faction ‘Grassroots Voice’ overachieved in the vote, with five out of their six candidates selected as local party representatives. Left-wing candidates Mish Rahman, Gemma Bolton, Nadia Jama, Yasmine Dar, and former MP Laura Pidcock were all appointed.
Andrew Scattergood, co-chair of Momentum, responded to the success of the hard-left candidates by saying: “Members have decisively rejected the anti-democratic crackdown implemented over the last few weeks by a factional group around the leadership.
“Keir Starmer has shown worrying signs of breaking with the values of party unity and socialist policy on which he was elected – this result should warn against that course of action.”
Among many other duties, the new NEC members will be charged with implementing the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s recommendations for dealing with anti-Semitism, as well as the issue of former leader Jeremy Corbyn’s suspension.
