by Conrad Landin
in Liverpool
LABOUR PARTY bosses were accused of a “stitch-up” yesterday as they pushed through plans to add two new appointed reps to the party executive — costing Jeremy Corbyn his majority.
The close balance between Mr Corbyn’s allies and “sceptics” on the national executive committee (NEC) has been key to deciding questions such as whether he should have been allowed on the leadership ballot.
Leftwingers say a proposal to allow the Scottish and Welsh Labour Party leaderships to appoint an NEC rep is designed to undermine Mr Corbyn’s position.
Controversially, the proposal was bundled up in an “all or nothing” package with other NEC rule changes, such as democratising the Labour Women’s Conference and ensuring that the incumbent is allowed to stand in a leadership election.
An emergency motion from transport union TSSA sought to postpone the decision but was ruled out of order.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes then attempted to overturn the platform’s ruling by moving “reference back.”
A heated debate saw some delegates urge the conference to reject the challenge so that the discussion could move on to party policy.
But Ashton-under-Lyne delegate Leigh Drennan said participants were being forced to vote for what was “essentially a stitch-up of the NEC.”
Requests to take a card vote on the motion were denied by conference chair Paddy Lillis, who said the platform’s agenda was “overwhelmingly carried” on a show of hands.
Mr Cortes and NEC member Christine Shawcroft then lodged points of order, arguing that it was agreed practice to move to a card vote if requested by delegates.
When Mr Lillis moved on, delegates used a Q&A with the party treasurer to cite clauses of the conference report saying that a card vote should be granted if it is “requested by delegates or by the decision of the chair.” These protestations were again ignored.
In the substantive debate, MSP Jackie Baillie claimed that denying the Scottish party leadership an NEC seat would hinder Labour’s return to power in Scotland.
Further uproar ensued after Mr Lillis refused to call any speakers opposed to the changes.
The NEC also opposed a series of rule changes from constituency parties, backed by the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, claiming that one of them would make the rule book “unstable.”
Mid-Bedfordshire delegate Rachel Garnham protested: “What makes the rule book unstable is choosing between a women’s conference and adding two unelected positions to the NEC.”
FORTY teaching assistants travelled to Liverpool to the Labour conference yesterday to protest against cuts to their pay totalling nearly a quarter of wages.
They met Unison general secretary Dave Prentis and GMB leader Tim Roache to express frustration with Durham County Council’s refusal to engage in talks.
They asked for support in launching industrial action and Mr Prentis suggested Unison could send a leaflet to all its members urging them to vote for a strike.
He said the union would offer full support for the teaching assistants, who are facing pay cuts of up to 23 per cent under the Labour-run council’s “fire and rehire” policy.
The council has claimed that the workers would be “terminated and re-engaged” by next April and that any ballot in favour of rejecting this plan would see “notices of termination” issued by next month. The council only wants to pay teaching assistants for hours worked, meaning they would lose pay during school holidays.
Durham Teaching Assistants campaigner Jan Clymo said: “The pay cuts would be devastating.”
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