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Hands off the CLP Section Go to model resolution When Partnership in Power (PiP) was introduced in 1997 it was claimed that it would give the NEC a more representative structure. Pre-1997, the NEC had reflected the composition of Conference: CLPs, TUs and Socialist societies. The entire NEC was elected at Conference by the delegates. New Labour's PiP proposals extended the NEC to include representatives of the Cabinet (chosen by the PM), of the PLP/EPLP and of Local councillors. The elitist make-up of the additional "stakeholders" undermines the claim that the NEC is now more democratic.The NEC Constituency Section, however, retained a strong democratic element. The PiP proposals allowed for "separate...direct representation of Constituency Labour Parties... ensuring genuine grassroots representation. With their own section on the NEC, ministers. MPs and MEPs would no longer be eligible to stand in other sections." (PiP p.10) But it soon transpired that not everyone standing for the Constituency Section could be described as local grassroots activists. Several nominees should more appropriately have stood in one of the sections reserved for other stakeholders, eg. TUs, Socialist Societies, Local councillors. The Millbank Tendency, however, welcomed these moves because the candidates' past record seemed likely to ensure their compliance with whatever New Labour's8 establishment wants. In 1998 the Grassroots Alliance candidates gained four of the six NEC constituency places. This may partly have been the membership's way of showing its dissatisfaction with the appropriation of the grassroots section by other stakeholders. This year the ballot was brought forward by three months thus cutting the period available for campaigning and making a low turnout more likely. That a retired Party and top trade union official, recently ennobled, would be a candidate, was not generally known until the ballot papers arrived. Can a House of Lords parliamentarian be regarded as a local grassroots activist ?
Model resolution"This Conference notes that the intention of the 1997 Conference was that the NEC Constituency Section should be for non-parliamentarians. The Partnership in Power document carried at the 1997 Conference stated that the new NEC would have 'places reserved for local Party activists'(PiP p.2). Conference also endorsed the proposal that rule changes would 'free up the CLP places for non-parliamentarians' (1997 Partnership in Power Rule changes p.6). However, the actual rule that was carried only debars MEPs and Commons Members of Parliament. The rule change therefore did not reflect the intention of the Partnership in Power proposals in that parliamentarians who sit in the House of Lords were still eligible to stand in the Constituency Section. Conference accordingly instructs the NEC to bring forward a constitutional amendment to the 2000 Conference to remove this anomaly."
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