Labour conference: ‘wrong time’ to change leadership rules, says Burnham – live | Politics
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13:09
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has been speaking at a Labour fringe. As my colleague Rowena Mason reports, he has been setting out his own policy agenda.
Rowena Mason
(@rowenamason)Andy Burnham says a “good safe home should be a human right in law” and repeats calls for a “universal basic income” – as everyone needs a good foundation before levelling up can occur
Rowena Mason
(@rowenamason)Andy Burnham setting out a real alternative vision here:1) universal basic income 2) homes for all as a human right 3) social care service free at point of use like NHS funded by 10% levy on estates after death 4) buses in public ownership…and lots more policy
13:05
Delegates held a card vote on the party rule changes. They have been divided into four parts, all subject to a separate vote: the EHRC-related changes; other disciplinary changes; party conference changes; and “Getting Labour election ready”, the term used to describe the changes to the leadership election rules.
It takes a while to count card votes, and so the results are not expected to be known until later tonight.
The main conference proceedings have now wrapped up for the day.
12:59
In the conference delegates have voted by hand for a national executive committee statement calling for the creation of an NEC working group to look at future changes to the party rules.
This is all that survives of the original plan to get rid of the electoral college. The statement says:
As part of the NEC’s key function to win elections and maintain the support of voters, the NEC supports the establishment of an NEC working group to look at future amendments that may be made to the party’s rules so that political levy members may have a say in the party as it delivers on winning the next election and considers how to involve Labour elected members from the Scottish parliament, the Senedd and local government. As part of its work, the NEC working group will also consider methods of promoting diversity and representation, including ensuring women’s representation in any election.
12:52
Andy Burnham says it is ‘wrong time’ to change leadership election rules
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has told the BBC that he does not favour the leadership election changes, the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg reports.
Laura Kuenssberg
(@bbclaurak)While Labour conference debates rule changes .. we’ve been speaking to Andy Burnham who’s arrived in Brighton this afternoon
Laura Kuenssberg
(@bbclaurak)Burnham says it’s wrong time to change the rules ‘people are not interested in the minutiae of rule changes in political parties’
12:47
Shabana Mahmood, the national campaign coordinator, is wrapping up the debate.
She says the leadership election rules changes are “a strong package of reforms that will better connect us with working people”.
She says they will ensure that any candidate has a sufficient basis of support in the party.
If you cannot persuade one fifth of MPs to make you a leadership candidate, “then you will struggle to persuade the people of this country to make you their prime minister,” she says.
Addressing the concerns about the impact of these changes on diversity, she says
As an ethnic minority MP, she says the MPs subject to trigger ballots under the old system were women.
She also says she objects to the idea that MPs are not similar to members.
And she says more than half of Labour MPs are now female. The idea that they will only deliver candidates who are male, pale and stale is wrong, she says.
She says she regrets that she had to spend the summer of 2019 fighting a reselection battle. She would have preferred to spend the summer talking to voters, she says.
12:37
The Unite union will not be voting on the leadership election rule changes, it has confirmed.
Unite Politics
(@UnitePolitics)Unite will not be voting for the last minute NEC rule changes on leadership elections. This is a distraction and not what matters to workers and our communities. We are in a time of political crisis and should be offering solutions #Lab21
Updated
12:32
Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, says the FBU will be opposing the leadership election rule changes. He says they privilege MPs, and he says the idea that it will make the party more appealing to voters is unconvincing.
He also said that the unions had not been properly consulted on the change.
12:13
James McAsh, a delegate from Camberwell and Peckham, says if the 20% threshold were in place in the 1990s, John Prescott and Margaret Beckett would not have been able to stand for the leadership. Ed Balls, Diane Abbott and Andy Burnham would have been excluded in 2010, he says. And he says if the same rule had applied after the 2019 election defeat, Keir Starmer would have been the only candidate.
He says with this rule change, candidates will be paler, maler and staler.
Updated
12:07
Back in the debate Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow work and pensions secretary, is defending the plans on behalf of the national executive committee. He says MPs must have the support of their local members. But the current rules mean they can be forced to fight a reselection battle even if most members back them.
And he says lifting the nomination threshold for a leadership candidate to 20% of MPs means a candidate must have the support of around 40 MPs. That is the minimum number needed for a viable shadow cabinet, he says.
Updated
12:03
Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem leader, says that, although he thinks Angela Rayner is impressive, progressive parties will not win elections if people think they are sanctimonious.
Tim Farron
(@timfarron)@AngelaRayner is authentic and impressive…But the ‘scum’ thing sums up a bigger problem. ‘Progressive’ parties will never win power so long as we give the impression that we rather disapprove of the electorate. You can be passionate yet display empathy instead of sanctimony.
11:58
Ian Drummond, a delegate from Edinburgh Eastern, says these changes will bake in everything happening in the party that he opposes. He says he does not believe that anyone is looking at the party and saying, if only it became more democratic, they would be more likely to vote for it.
11:55
Helena Dollimore, a delegate from Mitcham and Morden, says Labour is at its best when it is out in the community, not facing inwards.
In 2015 even a Tory MP joined the party to vote for the new leader, under the registered supporters scheme. She says it is time to change that.
She says she was in primary school the last time Labour won an election. These rule changes will put Labour “in pole position” for the next election, she claims.
11:53
Dave Ward, general secretary of the CWU union, says it is wrong to say the unions have been consulted about these changes.
He says that if he had been consulted, he would have said they were being “bounced”. He suggests the plans should be postponed.
Updated
11:51
Wendy Nichols, chair of the national executive committee’s organisation sub-committee, is now opening the debate on the other rule changes, including the ones that relate to leadership elections. These ones are summarised by the leadership with the title “Getting Labour election-ready”.
Updated
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