The recent controversies and dog fights over the selection of a Labour candidate in Falkirk has highlighted the reality that Labour can do selections a lot better.
I am calling for the Labour party to introduce primaries as a more democratic and open method of selecting the right candidate to represent Labour in local selections. I argued for primaries during Peter Hain’s Refounding Labour consultation in 2010 but instead the party introduced the rules that have been abused in the Falkirk selection process.
I ran a primary in my Bassetlaw constituency in 2010 when I asked local Labour voters who they wanted to lead the party. Over 10,000 residents participated, all of them confirming their support for the Labour party and they did so with keenness.
Many of the electorate also told me that they were members of the Labour party, believing that paying the union political levy equated to actual membership.
And this is what needs to change. Every levy payer of a Labour affiliated union ought to be able to use their levy to become an individual member of the party if they so wish. This would transform inert Labour constituencies, but it would also empower working-class trade union members. It would, though, not allow union leaders to stitch up selections.
The great irony is the ‘shock list’ of union candidates assisted to victory in recent selections, are from the professional classes. Lawyers, researchers, journalists, in fact everyone except the horny-handed sons or daughters of toil. The truth is that Unite has not brought forward working-class candidates as they have done for over 100 years. This is a huge loss for the Labour party and for parliament. This is what unions should be addressing.
The unions have scaled down education, training and support to their activists in recent years, relying on national politicking rather than trusting local union members to find the right candidates. We need trade unionists at every level of Labour and of government and they are not coming through.
Where Labour has stood local well-known community activists for Bassetlaw District Council seats public engagement in the electoral process is consistently higher. In other words more people vote. The days of putting up a donkey with a red rosette have gone and we have a responsibility to select a candidate that voters have confidence, trust and a belief that they share similar values and priorities. Voters are increasingly more consumerist in how they cast their vote and are more willing to try out the alternatives, especially at local elections. Failure to promote candidates who reflect local values and concerns now carries recognisable risks.
Trade union members, active in their workplace, stand a huge advantage if they can take that authority into the community. Primaries would mean far more working-class community councillors and MPs.
The argument for primaries is directly linked to the case that we should select community activists who share our values. Local engagement with, and support for, a candidate in advance of polling day strengthen their commitment to actually go out and vote and even campaign for the Labour party.
The argument for primaries is now overwhelming. Ed Miliband should authorise some immediate trials for both council and parliamentary selections.
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John Mann is MP for Bassetlaw and formerly worked for the Trade Union and Labour party Liaison Organisation (TULO). He tweets @JohnMannMP
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3 of the 4 shortlisted candidates here didn’t even bother to contact members before they were shortlisted while 2 who didn’t get shortlisted managed to achieve such a simple task the day of Brach nominations.
A 3rd candidate, who later pulled out of the application process also managed to make contact, even if it was, the day after the branch nominations meeting.
Of the 4 shortlisted 3 were parachuted into the CLP to accommodate AWS.
Yes selections can be done A LOT BETTER!
Every levy payer of a Labour affiliated union ought to be able to use their levy to become an individual member of the party if they so wish – ………I thought this was already the case?
I think we need to be a bit more specific here. What you’re talking about, John, is a *closed* primary, in which all members (individual or levy-payers) have a vote each. That’s fine by me, but (a) it requires a massive effort to track the levy-payers down, which is expensive and requires co-operation from affiliates, and (b) it needs to eliminate double-voting (or triple-voting) by people who are individual members and members of one or more affiliated organisation. Move to *open* primaries — when anyone can say they are a supporter — and there are real problems with political rivals intervening to skew results.
MPs are not supposed to have any opinions they are supposed to do as we tell them why bother electing them when a servant will represent us far better and he /she has no need to leave our constituency to serve our democratic needs ! Westminster doesn’t serve democracy it has nothing to do with democracy its a hollow manufactured set up pretending to be a democracy.
” I ran a primary in my Bassetlaw constituency in 2010 when I asked local Labour voters who they wanted to lead the party. Over 10,000 residents participated ”
How did you do it, what did it cost, and even more important , how much volunteer time was needed and at what times of the day or week?