We started on a sad note with a minute’s silence for comrades who have passed away since the last meeting, with particular thoughts about David Cairns MP who had passed away at the tragically young age of 44.

We agreed terms of reference for the Review of Labour in Scotland following the defeat by the SNP in the Scottish parliamentary election. This will be led by the Scottish Executive Committee although some matters such as any proposals for rule changes need to come to the NEC.

Peter Hain reported on the reviews of policymaking (Partnership into Power – PiP) and party structures (Refounding Labour – http://www.refoundinglabour.org), and the ‘New Politics, Fresh Ideas’ policy review being led by Liam Byrne (http://fresh-ideas.org.uk/events). There have already been 12,500 responses online to the policy review. However, the process is still in its infancy. In contrast the PiP and Refounding Labour consultations close on 24 June. The party is running 66 consultation events for members (six per region), which will look at both the reviews. The National Policy Forum meeting in Wrexham on 25 June will see a draft paper on the PiP review and an update on the direction of travel of the policy review. Any rule change proposals will go to the July NEC with any recommendations going to Annual Conference.

Dennis Skinner raised concerns that Refounding Labour might involve a proposal to cut the 50 per cent share of votes at conference held by the unions. Peter responded that we needed to address the fact that the unions don’t reach all segments of the electorate any more and that there is a problem with the big three unions holding 40 per cent of the votes at conference, but that the NEC has to agree any rule change recommendations. Personally, I don’t think it is a priority to change the voting pattern at conference as the current balance has seen conference take sensible decisions in favour of electorally popular stances on policy issues during the time it has existed – it would look like picking a fight with our own affiliates for no good reason.

We received a report on the ‘Future Candidates Programme’, to be funded by the Lionel Cooke Memorial Fund, which seems like a very positive initiative aimed at increasing the diversity of the PLP through training candidates from under-represented backgrounds in how to get selected and other political skills. The programme will be advertised from 23 June.

Harriet Harman reported, saying that we had had some encouraging results on 5 May because the party had refused to be defeatist and bounced back from the general election defeat. Remarkable levels of campaigning activity had helped ensure our vote was up on 2010 in every English region, and the Tory vote was down in every region. There was now an intake of very enthusiastic new councillors but she did not underestimate the tough scenario faced by them either if in a small Labour group on a Tory council or in control and facing budget cuts from Pickles and Osborne. We had managed to field 10 per cent more council candidates than in 2007 and 20 per cent more in the three southern regions, but needed to build even more on this for the May 2012 elections.

Party staff gave an analysis of the election results:

• Scotland had been an SNP landslide with a complete collapse in the LD vote. An SNP bandwagon effect starting at the start of the short campaign had meant Scotland did not have the trend to Labour seen everywhere else. Generally there had been a uniform swing to the SNP, but there had been exceptions in that there were good results for Labour against the Tories in the marginal Eastwood and Dumfries seats.

• The Welsh result was very good, with a 10 per cent lift in Labour’s vote, although the Tories consolidated their position in some rural areas.

• There was a strong performance in the English local elections with our vote share up everywhere. Nationally there was a four per cent swing from Conservative to Labour since the general election, leaving us just ahead of the Tories had elections been held nationwide. The Tories had a similar vote to 2010 but we recovered ground. There were some pleasing green shoots of recovery with Labour representation where there had been none on a number of southern councils. The net gain of 26 councils was a solid performance and meant we had won nearly every council we targeted. The LDs had almost completely collapsed in the big cities, but despite this Labour gained more seats from the Tories than the LDs. The east Midlands results were very encouraging. There had been an especially strong movement back to Labour in working-class areas where our vote had fragmented such as Ashfield, Mansfield and Stoke-on-Trent. The next two years in the cycle of local elections should be good for Labour in terms of rebuilding our local government strength both in councillors and councils controlled, as we will be fighting seats lost in the worst years, 2008 and 2009.

• Labour activists had canvassed 2.1 million voters since January, matching the activity level from the general election year. Scotland had seen equivalent levels of campaigning but this had not been enough to stop the SNP tide.

• Membership is expected to hit 200,000 this month for the first time since 2004. Over 3,000 young members have joined at the special reduced rate.

Ed Miliband said that reaction to the elections needed to be balanced: we should neither be complacent nor be talking ourselves into gloom. After the second worst defeat since 1918 we had won back from the LDs the progressive voters lost in the previous 10 years. However, Tory voters were still giving the government a chance. He believed there were specific causes to the Scottish defeat, some about organisation and targeting but most importantly that we did not articulate a big picture vision for Scotland compared to the SNP, despite having some good policies. The AV campaign had shown our maturity and unity as a political party as we had managed differences of opinion well, in contrast to the infighting between the LDs and Tories at the end of the campaign. Our next task is to move from having become a credible opposition to giving people a sense of the change we would bring if we won power, particularly in the areas of the squeeze on living standards, communities and the life chances of the next generation.

On party reform Ed said he wanted members to feel they had a real say. This could prove inconvenient to any leader but was essential if Labour was to be a living, breathing movement. He wants Labour to be a party that reaches out to local communities and is a force for good locally. Finally we had to be an election-winning machine.

Ed concluded by saying he never thought it would be easy for us to defy history and win back power after just one term in opposition, but the elections showed we were making incremental progress.

The final major item of business we considered was to agree a timetable and shortlisting panel for the appointment of a new general secretary. The process will conclude with us interviewing and appointing the new person on 19 July.

London review meetings:

Friday 20 May 7.00 – 9.00pm St Margaret House, 21 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PL

Tuesday 24 May 7.00 – 9.00pm Media Centre, 39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HA

Thursday 26 May 7.00 – 9.00pm Charlton House, Charlton Road, London SE7 8RE

Monday 13 June 7.00pm – 9.00pm Broad House, 205 Fore Street, London N18 2TZ

Tuesday 14 June 7.00pm – 9.00pm Media Centre, 39 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0HA

Tuesday 21 June 7.00pm – 9.00pm Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD

If you want to come along please register your interest online at:

http://www.fresh-ideas.org.uk/london

You can find all the events details online at fresh-ideas.org.uk/events