UK
Arms sales to Israel, two-child limit & election analysis – Jess Barnard reports back from Labour’s NEC
Jess Barnard, Labour Members’ NEC Representative, reports back from this week’s NEC, the very first since the election of the Labour Government.
We received a brief report back from Starmer and a very short Q&A. The brief headlines were:
- Tory mess left behind worse than expected, including decisions taken with no funding allocated.
- The Prison situation is much worse than expected
- The new Government was well received by NATO and full support was given to Ukraine
- Keir Starmer is keen to ensure decision making is in the right place by people with skin in the game
- The Government has been able to establish so much in just the first 18/19 days of labour government
I asked Starmer, given his international commitments, would he ensure a Labour Government is not complicit in war crimes and therefore would he end arms sales to Israel. He said that international and domestic law needed to be followed and the Foreign Secretary was engaged in those.
I also asked about high rents causing housing insecurity, poverty & debt for millions. A promising reply, he discussed the measures already announced, for example scrapping s21, but also ending the bidding wars and that rents need tackling – agreed to discuss at next in-person NEC.
On two-child benefit, he said he is absolutely determined to address child poverty and the issues surrounding this. Work beginning this week to start bringing down the NHS waiting lists which was a clear priority for Labour in the election period.
We also had an update from Angela Rayner, she praised the King’s Speech and the content, particularly the new deal for workers, a key win for the unions. On housing, she said the costs of rent were a supply/demand issue and sang the praises of plans including the Labour renters reforms.
Next up, a general election ‘wash up’ Some stats which caught my eye: Labour canvassers spoke to 3.1 million voters during the election, 5 million in 2024. On polling day we spoke to 500,000 voters using the app. 90% of polling day contacts made were in battleground seats.
Labour received more money from online donations than in any other elections and the General Secretary said he is not sorry for all the emails. 15000 new members since the election was called. Angela’s bus covered 6500 miles 34,000 people volunteered for Labour for the first time.
Lots of info breaking down the election win and voters but essentially we won because the Tory vote collapsed and we focused on convincing ex-Tory voters to vote Labour. Membership update: 358,000 members in total but 10,000 of those are in arrears. 3,825 joined since the election win.
I asked if the General Secretary would look into the anonymous briefings against some candidates in the media and stressed the need to support all candidates, not just those from one faction. I also asked if there are efforts to reach out to predominantly Muslim councillors who quit Labour over Keir Starmer and Gaza.
I didn’t get a response on the briefings but the General Secretary did respond that the party has been working with police and intelligence to support MPs who had been targeted/faced abuse during the election.
Lots of people stressed the need for the party to rebuild bridges with local members who had been denied the right to select their candidates – usually having them imposed by a small committee of the NEC (I did not sit on any of these).
No comments:
Post a Comment