Labour Party Conference 2018
Why is organising for 2018 Labour Party Conference important?
Labour Party Conference is the sovereign body in the Party’s policy-making process, where delegates come together to discuss and decide rule changes and policies. Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) elect their delegates to the Labour Party Conference any time between January and June. The 2017 Labour Party Conference in Brighton was historic, with over 1200 delegates debating and voting on key party issues. This year's Conference in Liverpool will be even bigger, and even more important, as delegates will have the chance to debate and vote on the Democracy Review, which will cover a number of crucial issues.
Please find our guide to conference organising below, and click the buttons to share with Labour friends.
How can you and your local Momentum group organise for CLP delegate elections?
a) Find out whether your CLP will be sending delegates to conference
Most CLPs will send delegates to conference. If yours does, contact your CLP Secretary to find out when and where the meeting will be that elects the delegates, how many delegates will be elected, and if voting is open to all members in the CLP or only to delegates from branches.
CLPs that decide not to send delegates often choose not to do because of cost. If this is the case in your CLP, you might consider ways that you can organise fundraising events for your local Party.
b) Hold meetings with Momentum members and other supportive Labour members to ensure there will be strong candidates who can be nominated in the CLP when it elects conference delegates
Ideally, conference delegates should be prepared to work with other like-minded Party members and have the confidence to make speeches if necessary. In particular, people from working class backgrounds and from liberation strands (women, BAME, LGBTQ+, disabled people) should be encouraged to stand.
c) Email local Momentum members and supporters to inform them of relevant meetings
If you have any queries about how your local group can access or use the data, please email [email protected]
d) Phone-bank local supporters to encourage them to attend meetings
If the meeting to elect conference delegates is open to all members, phone-banking is a great way to get many local members to attend and vote. Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions about phonecalling.
e) Organising for delegate-only CLP meetings
If only delegates can vote at your CLP meeting (rather than an All Members Meeting) then you should focus on encouraging CLP delegates to attend the General Committee (GC) meeting and vote for the candidates you are backing.
Also, following a huge increase in Labour Party membership last summer, many branches are entitled to send additional delegates to their GC. Find out if your local branch is entitled to send more delegates, and if so, encourage people to stand as delegates to the CLP. They will then be able to vote for delegates to conference and other positions within the CLP.
Furthermore, candidates should be able to stand to be a delegate to conference even if they are not a delegate to their CLP, as long as they are nominated by a branch or an affiliated organisation. For clarification on criteria for candidates, check with your CLP Secretary.
Delegate entitlements
CLPs are entitled to one delegate for the first 749 full members and a further delegate for every additional 250 individual members. At least every second delegate from a CLP has to be a woman, and where only one delegate is appointed this must be a woman at least every second year. In CLPs where there are 100 or more women members, an additional woman delegate may be appointed. In CLPs where there are 30 or more young members, an additional delegate under the age of 27 may be appointed.
CLPs do not have to appoint their full delegate entitlement, although they do have the option of crowdfunding to finance additional delegates. However, the number of delegates sent does not affect CLPs voting weight. Therefore, focus should be on ensuring that CLP delegates support policies to transform Britain, and thus reflect the views of Labour’s membership, rather than increasing the overall number of delegates.
If you have any questions please get in touch with us at [email protected]
Together, we can continue our work to deliver a members-led Labour Party, that is rooted in communities and capable of getting into government to rebuild and transform Britain.