It is saddening to see our politicians’ focus on social justice undermined by the series of financial questions that have hung over the Labour party. Each small mistake at the centre of the party organisation has the potential to wipe out the benefit of thousands of hours of work by activists on the doorsteps. These mistakes cannot be allowed to recur. So I am standing to be the treasurer of the Labour Party.

The party is not corrupt, yet there is a clear public perception of wrongdoing. There is a need for change so that we can operate a higher standard of governance and oversight in our financial arrangements, but more than that, there is a need for us – as a party – to win back the faith of the public.

The post of Treasurer has atrophied over the years to become a semi-honorary role – a post without teeth. I have been told that only once in the last 16 years has the post of treasurer of the Labour party been contested. This is the source of the weakness of the role. A democratic and fair contest between strong candidates confers a mandate on the winner. It is this lack of a mandate that has eroded the position to the point where the treasurer is all but disregarded by the apparatus.

The first requirement is to ensure that the NEC knows all the relevant details when making decisions, and that means asking difficult questions and perhaps not taking no for an answer. But this can be done in the spirit of cooperation rather than confrontation.

Secondly, the party must build its capacity to comply with our statutory obligations. This means formalising our training procedures and taking the further step: to test trained staff and volunteers to certify their understanding of the rules rather than taking that understanding for granted. In a future deputy leadership election for example, we cannot again leave to chance the ‘competence’ of those volunteers organising on behalf of the candidates.

A further serious task of a treasurer with teeth would be to scrutinise the party spending as much as fundraising. We are dependent on membership subscriptions, affiliation fees and donations and it is our duty to ensure our supporters’ money is spent wisely and oversight in this arena could limit the pressure that may have led to fundraising mistakes in the past. Someone at the heart of the party needs to remember that our donors deserve our gratitude, not our favours.

I intend to mount a campaign that gets the party back into conversation with its members. I want to go back to old politics, talking to the grass roots in an ongoing conversation, not just asking for votes or asking them to campaign at election time. They should have a say over how the party behaves in terms of funding and to be allowed to express dissatisfaction that the party responds properly to. I intend to campaign like that, using the internet to enable members to have their say and question me through blogger events, online polling and live forums. This would continue if I were elected to office. I will also spend the next six months travelling the UK to meet as many local party organisations as possible, canvassing opinion and maintaining an ongoing dialogue on changes to party governance.

If you support the principle of an election for treasurer, that we need better governance when it come to raising funds or that the party should be having an ongoing conversation with its members, please support me in any way you can. Please ask me a question, join my Facebook group, invite me to your CLP, blog about me or ask your CLP to nominate me before 1 April.