On Christmas Eve the Labour Black Network made a submission to the Labour party Collins review making a number of recommendations, which included supporting primaries.

The Labour Black Network aims to support Labour party members who are African and Caribbean descent and heritage as well as advocating the case for greater representation in all elected positions and roles.

The submission shows that the black British population is 5.5 per cent (3.1 million) and if parliament reflected the diversity of the population there would be 36 black MPs. There are currently only eight black MPs (five Labour). At present only two additional black candidates have been selected to stand for 106 Labour target seats in 2015.

In 1987 Diane Abbott was one of the three black Labour MPs to get elected for the first time. Now in 2014, there are only five black Labour MPs. In her foreword for the submission she said:

‘… if you had told me that, 26 years later, the numbers of African and Afro-Caribbean Labour members of parliament would scarcely be any greater, I would have been shocked. We thought that we were opening a door, through which many others would flood through. But in 2013 there are exactly three male African and Afro-Caribbean Labour members of parliament’.

The submission focused on three areas where black candidates face barriers financial, obstruction, and bullying. The recommendations include a call for all-BAME shortlists, a complaints process and spending caps on selection alongside primaries in areas with a high black population and where the local party does not reflect diversity of the community.

LBN advocates a closed primary system. Voting in a closed primary would be restricted to Labour supporters. Members could still have the responsibility of selecting the shortlist which would then be opened up to a vote by registered supporters of the Labour party. Not only would this help to involve a wider group of local people in the selection of their Labour candidate, it could also help to increase Labour membership.

Many black candidates believe that if participation in selections was opened up to a wider range of people in the community, candidates from a wider range of backgrounds would get selected. I personally also believe that a community would not be overly impressed with someone that had only worked in politics and devoted all their spare time as a Labour activist. The community’s definition of what makes a strong candidate might be ‘someone you can have a drink with’, ‘someone that understands how hard things are’ or ‘someone that’s involved in the community’. That definition might select more women, working-class and BAME candidates.

The French Socialist process offers an interesting model for determining who to involve in party selection processes. One objection to primaries is that they are vulnerable to be taken over by opponents of the party, who could use their voting rights to back a candidate with no Labour values. The French Socialist approach was to require those wishing to participate to sign a declaration that they support the ‘values of the left’.

Those wishing to participate had to make a contribution of at least €1. This fee raised a total of €3.5m, enabling the French Socialists to more than cover the considerable costs of the nationwide exercise. The high costs of primaries are one reason why British parties have used them sparingly so far. A user fee would be one way to overcome this problem that did not make recourse to public funds.

For local constituency Labour parties and the London mayoral selection, primaries could open up the selection process to the community and open the door for candidates from a wider range of backgrounds.

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Josephine Channer is a councillor in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham. She tweets @JosieChanner. For more information and to support a new voice for representation and social justice in the Labour party please go to www.labourblacknetwork.weebly.com