The Labour Party fight is on

The fIght for our future is on - #JeremyCorbyn

So, the fight for our future is on.

Are we a party promoting the politics of hope or a party promoting the politics of despair accepting austerity and the consequences it has on our communities?

I am clear having been organising within UNISON for over 20 years my members are crying out for a positive political agenda. They are tired of outsourcing, attacks on pay and our pension scheme. Housing is a massive issue for our members and their families and Jeremy is spot on in understanding we should stop talking and start building.

Angela Eagle has finally issued her challenge, but it is not really a challenge because her challenge is based on the assumption that Jeremy will not get nominations. This is a very very high risk strategy and again underlines that they do not have the interests of the electorate at the heart of their campaign.

BUT, we must always be prepared for each fresh battle and I guess there are going to be coming thick and fast.

The next battle is the Labour Party NEC meeting Tuesday.

As we know the NEC are going to vote on the issue of whether they believe Jeremy needs nominations to stand in a leadership election.

I am not a lawyer, but what has been posted about the legal advice so far does suggest that Jeremy does not need to seek nominations, as the post of party Leader is not vacant.

I guess most Labour Party members/ supporters will not know much about the makeup of the NEC and the number of votes.
I have checked on Wikipedia here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Executive_Committee and have the following breakdown of the Labour Party NEC, as of 2015.

As of 2015, the NEC had 33 members elected from the following constituencies:

1: Leader of the Labour Party - Jeremy Corbyn MP

1: Deputy Leader of the Labour Party – Tom Watson MP

1: Treasurer - Diana Holland (Treasurer)

3: Opposition Front Bench (MPs nominated by the Shadow Cabinet)
• Jon Ashworth MP (Opposition Front Bench),
• Jon Trickett MP (Opposition Front Bench),
• Rebecca Long-Bailey MP (Opposition Front Bench)

1: EPLP Leader - Glenis Willmott MEP (EPLP Leader)

1: Young Labour - Jasmin Beckett (Young Labour)

12: Trade Unions -
• Keith Birch [Unison]
• Jamie Bramwell [UCATT]
• Jennie Formby [Unite] Andi Fox [TSSA] (Div. I - Trade Unions)
• Jim Kennedy [Unite]
• Andy Kerr [CWU]
• Paddy Lillis [USDAW]
• Martin Mayer [Unite]
• Pauline McCarthy [BFAWU]
• Wendy Nichols [Unison
• Cath Speight [GMB]
• Mary Turner [GMB]

2: Socialist Societies and BAME Labour
• James Asser
• Keith Vaz MP

6: Constituency Labour Parties
• Johanna Baxter
• Ann Black
• Ellie Reeves
• Christine Shawcroft
• Darren Williams
• Pete Willsman

2: Labour Councillors
• Cllr Ann Lucas
• Cllr Alice Perry

3: PLP/EPLP (Backbench MPs or MEPs elected by all Labour MPs and MEPs)
• Margaret Beckett MP
• Shabana Mahmood MP
• Dennis Skinner MP

In addition, the PLP Chief Whip, PLP Chair, Scottish Labour Leader and Leader of the Labour Group in the National Assembly for Wales attend ex-officio without a vote.

The General Secretary acts as the non-voting secretary to the NEC.

This makes a total of 33 votes.

So, if everyone is present Jeremy will need 18 votes.

For those of us in a trade union you can see the Trade Unions have 12 votes. I can only go by what has been said publicly, therefore I am making an informed view that Jeremy will get 12 votes from the Trade Unions.

I am assuming as Leader he will vote the right way, which would make 13 votes.

I personally don’t know how the others will vote, but after listening to Dennis Skinner on Saturday at the Durham Miners Gala I’d put money that he will vote for Jeremy which puts Jeremy on 14 votes only needing another 5 votes.

I have no idea how the other 19 will vote but feel free to share your views as to how the vote will go tomorrow, but whatever happens tomorrow we have a fight on.

Solidarity.

​Thanks to John Burgess and Dean Kirk