Luke who’s talking Articles

No sooner does one round of debate over constitutional reform – AV – bite the dust and another one starts, this time over the House of Lords. Labour’s constitutional conservatives are gearing up for another rearguard action. At this point I should say that some of my best friends are constitutional conservatives, and yes I do forgive them for rubbing it in that I live in one of only 10 bits of the country – Hackney – to back AV – magnanimity in victory is a tough ask when you’ve pulverised the opposition and ended a debate that has been going on for decades! 

This was the question I was asked to answer as part of a panel at Saturday’s Progress annual conference. I thought I’d share my response with a wider audience here.  The short answer is ‘no’.  The evidence I would cite is twofold.

Labour’s National Executive Committee met on 17 May in contemplative mood following the mixed election results – NEC member Luke Akehurst presents his report of yesterday’s meeting

Luke Akehurst pores over last week’s results and asks whether Labour’s results in the south and against the Tories were really as feeble as the emerging consensus holds them to be.