Category Archives: Unions

After the appalling behaviour of a number of Labour MPs recently and the closure of the case against Margaret Hodge, who has denied expressing regret when the Labour Chief Whup confirmed twice that she had done so and had received a formal warning and the case was closed on that basis, huge numbers of Labour members have been demanding ‘mandatory reselection’ (MR) of Labour MPs.

Under Labour’s current rules, existing MPs can only be removed by means of a complex ‘trigger ballot’ process, in which members’ influence is hugely diminished compared to that of affiliated unions and socialist societies, who can usually protect an incumbent if they wish to do so.

Under mandatory reselection, members would vote on an ‘OMOV’ (one member, one vote) basis and the process would be refreshed at every general election – empowering members and vastly increasing the accountability of MPs to them.

Now members have received a huge boost with the news that Unite, one of the UK’s biggest unions and one of the most influential in the Labour Party, intends to back moves to introduce MR at Labour’s annual conference next month in Liverpool – and that even if the measure fails, a push is planned to use the trigger ballot process to replace MPs that have been undermining the party’s push for power.

A senior Unite insider told the SKWAWKBOX:

‘Mandatory reselection is our policy so expect us to push this at the conference. If it didn’t get through I would expect us to be actively looking to use the trigger process.’

To read the whole Post, please click on the following link to go to the Skwawkbox Blog:

Unite to back Mandatory Selection at Labour Conference

COMMENT:

I was delighted to read this post by Skwawkbox, especially as it has given me a greater hope that we members will be able to get back the correct amount of control that we should have had, especially of the way that MP’s are voted into Seats, and who they should be listening to when they get there, where Party Policy is concerned.

Rather than having to put up with right-leaning Labour MP’s, who are not listening to the people who voted them in to their positions, and are deliberately going against the vast majority of the Member’s wishes – all while doing their best to push out the one man, Jeremy Corbyn, that so many thousands of us had joined the Party for in the first place – as we see in him a hope for the future, where he becomes our next Prime Minister – we now see the possibilities of having the chance to make sure that those same MP’s are given the choice to either toe the Party line  or, if they choose to  go against the majority of the member’s wishes, especially if it’s to do with Party policy, then they can – and will – be voted out of their seats, and we’ll find someone else to be given the chance to help get our Party back into the driving seat again – but, this time, all for the good of the Many, not the Few! 🙂

Whether Unite succeed in getting enough other Unions behind this, we’ll have to wait and see – but their actions show us that our patience has not been in vain, and that hope is still alive for a better future than we can see at the moment!

With enough of us fighting for what we believe Jeremy Corbyn can do for us – and the country – then it’s going to be a bumpy, but exciting ride!