There is growing support in the Labour party for primaries, as shown by initiatives in Bassetlaw, Edinburgh East, Dudley North and Saffron Walden for the Labour leadership.
Ed Miliband, Andy Burnham and John Mann, Bassetlaw's MP, have written about their support for primaries - read them now to find out what is going on in Labour parties across the country, and sign our petition now to support the campaign for Labour primaries in parliamentary and mayoral selections.
This campaign continues to call for the Labour party to introduce primaries involving pre-registered supporters for parliamentary and mayoral selections ideally to be held on the same day as other political parties, and to encourage local parties to do so where possible for the Labour leadership contest.
Those who care about Labour's future have to think of new ways of engaging a wider group of the public in its activities. This would not mean the end of the party itself - members could continue to have the right of choosing the shortlist and pulling together the policies which Labour stands for, but at a time when creating communities of support for progressive politics is becoming more important, primaries could be one way of getting closer to that.
1. Jessica Asato (Acting Director, Progress) 2. Anthony Painter 3. Cllr Mark Harrison (London borough of Lambeth) 4. Mark Day (Progress) 5. Conor Ryan (Conor's Commentary) 6. Kevin Bonavia (Labour PPC for Rochford & Southend East) 7. Wes Streeting (President, National Union of Students) 8. Peter Droussiotis (Hornsey & Wood Green CLP and Chair, Labour Cypriot Society) 9. Adam Fox 10. Cllr Florence Nosegbe (London borough of Lambeth) 11. Peter Bowers 12. Joanne Milligan (Labour Party) 13. Adam Gray 14. Seán Newman 15. Anne Sassoon (Vauxhall CLP) 16. Cllr. Theo Blackwell (Camden Labour) 17. John Cowan (Labour PPC for South East Cambridgeshire) 18. Roger Bonehill (Cardiff North CLP) 19. Stuart Bruce (Elmet and Rothwell CLP) 20. Paul Burgin (Press Officer, North East Herts CLP) 21. Professor Andrew Chadwick (Royal Holloway, University of London) 22. Cllr David Boothroyd (Westminster City Council) 23. Nora Mulready (Tottenham CLP) 24. Kathy Levine (Chipping Barnet CLP) 25. David Henig (Walthamstow CLP) 26. Jack Scott (PPC for Sheffield Hallam) 27. Alex Smith (Editor, LabourList) 28. Darren Barrenger (PPC Harwich & North Essex) 29. Cllr Peter Slack (Labour Councillor Derbyshire Dales District Council) 30. Alan Edwards 31. Ron Marchant CB 32. David Rowntree (Labour PPC, Cities of London & Westminster) 33. Gabe Trodd 34. Hugh Burton (Labour Party, The European Movement) 35. Daryn McCombe (London Young Labour Exec and LGBT Labour Exec) 36. Luke Bozier (Red Narrative) 37. Philippa Latimer (PPC St Ives) 38. Louisa Loveluck (Student - University of Cambridge) 39. Terry Philpot (East Surrey CLP) 40. Mark Rusling (Council candidate, Waltham Forest) 41. David Chaplin (Vice Chair, Young Fabians) 42. James Thurston (Fabian Society Member/ Former Labour Party County and District Council Candidate) 43. Tim Finch (Director of Strategic Communications Ippr) 44. Sam Burt (Treasurer-Elect, Oxford Labour Club) 45. Suresh Pushpananthan (Vice-Chair, Fabian Society) 46. Adam Gielgud (Wycombe CLP) 47. Chris Bain (North Warwickshire CLP) 48. Rachel Cunningham 49. Don Paskini (Labour Blogger) 50. Jeremy Killingray 51. Ben Lyons (Co-Chair, Oxford University Labour Club) 52. Philip Collins (Demos) 53. Richard Angell (LGBT Labour) 54. Aktar Beg (PPC Romsey and Southampton North CLP) 55. Terry Daniels 56. Sean Morton 57. Cllr Mike Harris (London borough of Lewisham) 58. Cllr Adam Harrison (London borough of Camden)
Comments
Posted by Shelley Walsh on 07 September 2009, 10:14:44 PM
George Davidson's comment really caught my eye, because of my experience with the US. Party unity is one of the Democratic Party's big weaknesses, particularly in a hotly contested battle. My experience is that the conventions help a lot to combat the problem, particularly if you have a good party unification speech at them. I can remember more than once being inspired by a good one to get involved when my candidate of choice didn't win. I remember especially Morris Udall's speech about how important it was to defeat Reagan, and how it convinced me to volunteer for the campaign practically the next day. We didn't win, but believe it or not, without that speech it could have been a lot worse. It's not a total cure, witness the PUMAs (party unity my ass) in the last US election, but the whole theatre of New York pushing the count over and Clinton as a part of the New York delegation making the announcement was very psychologically powerful. Without that kind of thing the defection rate would have been for sure much higher. Of course for a parliamentary selection, you're not going to have anything like the Democratic convention circus. But perhaps we could have something like it on a smaller scale where that all important transition from rivals to allies takes place, so kind of party get together with inspirational speeches. The losing candidates ideally need to set good examples too. Hilary Clinton was fantastic with this even when her followers weren't always, launching the Hillary Sent Me campaign. The unifying of the party isn't just going to happen, you have to make it happen.
Posted by Matthew Forkins on 20 August 2009, 12:13:07 PM
I look forward to any PPC or current MP who signs up to this requesting that they can run a primary in their constituency. Anything less would be hypocritical. Let me know how you get on.
Posted by DR SUDARAM RAI on 19 August 2009, 5:20:43 PM
To win the next General election and in a very short time to connect to the voters is by primaries. Further we have to show the cetre left, right of centre and floating voters that NEW LABOUR is not controlled by few leftist vested interests. Unfortunately we found in the past year with bitter election defeats that we could be unelectable as we are now.
It is time new ideas to float to get our supporters back in our fold, who deserted us in the past year. Everybody is aware of the problems WE and other COUNTRIES are facing and we have to show our Government has the right policies in these PRIMARIES.
Posted by Phil Rackley on 18 August 2009, 4:54:03 PM
John Harris article in Saturdays' Guardian is worth considering when thinking about going down this ridiculous road. see here.
Posted by Denise Robson on 18 August 2009, 4:51:47 PM
In order to win the most cross-party and über-party support, successful candidates in a primary would need to be at the centre politically. Wouldn't this result in the blandest of contests? When people say "all the parties are the same", they may be ill-informed about detail, but spot-on on the casual impression. Rather than use the media to be all things to all people, party members need to think carefully what are we for and have the guts to state precisely where we want to go. Which in turn means that ordinary members need the right to contribute in a bottom-up fashion to party policy. If we did that, that should get the electorate interested again.
Posted by Dave Bannister on 18 August 2009, 11:50:44 AM
The case for primaries in the context of selecting a Parliamentary candidate is simple to grasp - to establish which potential candidate is least likely to scare the electorate. However, the case for closed primaries (involving registered, and therefore presumably 'core' voters) is less obvious. Surely, the only question that can be addressed through such a process is 'who are our core voters most likely to vote for?'. When a party is seeking to broaden its appeal (as Labour is now - and with seemingly increasing desparation) this question is of academic interest at best. What a CLP needs to know is how it can ensure the selection of a candidate with broader appeal. Or maybe, just maybe, the 'people's party' should focus more on policies. As an ex-Labour voter, and ex Parliamentary candidate, I am not so much concerned about who should be selected to defend the next manifesto, but more concerned about its contents.
Open primaries, plus progressive policies might eventually have an impact. Closed primaries, coupled with the same old message will not.
Posted by Phil Rackley on 14 August 2009, 4:02:48 AM
Another issue here is, of course, the one of costs/expenses. Prospective nominees with finance would of course have a distinct advantage when campaigning for primary votes. Additionally the campaigns would become personality/celebrity based rather than one involving policies and beliefs.
Posted by Vaughan Thomas on 13 August 2009, 5:10:27 PM
Let me get this right; not enough people are actively involved in politics or voting........soooooo, lets have another vote first, to see who we can vote for!!!!!
Naaaaaaa, this doesn't add up even though I know this is what they do in America. The Tories' 'Totnes Project' was a brilliant PR/advertising campaign for Tories who have much deeper pockets than Labour. How much would it have cost to get adverts on national TV advertising the Tory Party & effectively 'adverts' on the BBC to boot. Are we really suggesting that we fork out more, not just in monetary terms but also time, energy and effort that is in all too short supply; remember this scheme is being flown BECAUSE there are not enough activists and the majority of the electorate are just too disinterested, annoyed or angry to get invovled in the first place.
I say again, TIME IS SHORT....TOO SHORT to be going down this route before the next General Election.
We need to stop pussy footing around and bring in legislation in short order making voting compulsory; simple as, and there is no reason why there can't be a box on the ballot paper so people can abstain if the want to. Its not too much to ask in a democracy to expect people to vote for goodness sake. people are already legally obliged to register so what's the big deal in extending this. They do it in Australia. This doesn't take endless negoitations with all the other political parties........I think some people have forgotten that Labour is in power still and this is something that can be put into effect before the next General Election. WE ARE IN POWER AT THE MOMENT, for goodness sake, lets use it.
Posted by stephen ryan on 13 August 2009, 3:44:41 PM
I do support the idea of primaries, but can't help feeling that one of the reasons that Labour is in trouble at the moment - and that includes membership numbers, is that it seems to be keener to woo the Daily Mail than appeal to its members or even its core vote. Perhaps if members had more policies they felt connected them and enthused them about the Labour Party then the need for open primaries might be reduced.
Posted by Phil Rackley on 12 August 2009, 6:17:39 AM
Over the past 15 years or so members have seen their role in decision-making in the Labour Party being eroded and membership has fallen dramatically, largely due to this.
To move to a primary system where at the very least you only have to be a "registered" supporter will lead to many activists questioning whether there is any point in being a member of the Labour Party.
Politics will become like being a supporter of a football club. Power will be concentrated even more than now in the hands of a few at the top of the party. The whole ides of primaries is ill thought out and will spell disaster for the party.
Posted by Douglas Carswell MP on 11 August 2009, 7:12:51 PM
Sorry to butt in, guys, but what you are advocating is hardly progressive. You want Labour to select candidates using "primaries involving pre-registered supporters".
That's not an open primary - it's a closed one.
Much of the new progressive thinking behind the Conservative move towards open primaries is in this paper here - http://www.douglascarswell.com/upload/upload8.pdf
Can I suggest you have a read, and be a little bolder? Our self-serving Westminster system needs a bit more radicalism than closed primaries in order to wake it up .....
Posted by George Davidson on 11 August 2009, 4:57:07 PM
I love the enthusiasm and energy for primaries. It's a great way to identify your supporters as they have to register to participate. The competition amongst primary candidates speaking to voters ought to be good for a party.
But the experiment in Totnes is not over. The Tory who won there has not yet stood in a General Election. It is not yet clear whether the local party workers will get behind her. Or if voters will want to vote TWICE for her having voted once. Or if the 8,000 (50%) who voted for a different Tory candidate will actually come out on election day.
They might end up regretting this selection method.
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'Voters feel cut out of politics. We need to open up the way we do politics, from top to bottom. Primaries are a key way of doing this.' - James Purnell, head of the Open Left project at Demos
'The Labour party needs to tap into the energy in communities up and down the country to renew our membership base. We need a debate throughout our movement on how to refresh our party structures and I support Progress’s contribution to this.' - David Miliband, secretary of state for foreign and commonwealth affairs
'If we are going to build a more open politics, then political parties need to lead the way. That means showing that we are truly open to the engagement of the millions of people who don’t want to join us but want to be involved in crucial decisions. The most powerful demonstration of that would be to open up the process by which we select our candidates, including those for parliament, by introducing open primaries. This provides an opportunity to strengthen political parties, but political parties with more porous boundaries. So, like Progress, I believe that if you are willing to register your support for the Labour party, you should have a say in selecting the Labour party’s candidates. And this is just a first step in building a more pluralist politics: one that recognises that progressive values are shared more widely than the Labour party and that the alignment we should be seeking is one of people who share the same value-driven ambitions for their community, town and country.' - Tessa Jowell, minister for the cabinet office
'I’ve been a strong supporter of primaries and of changing the way we select our candidates for over 18 months, and I am excited that Progress has joined the campaign. The debate about renewing the Labour party, opening up our structures and ending the era of ‘politics as usual’ must not be a battle between the ‘right’ and ‘left’ of the party. It must be about answering the public’s call for change: about reconnecting with our supporters, energising the way we do politics, and involving as many people as possible in progressive causes, from across the Labour movement and beyond. We must rise to this challenge, be brave and make change happen.'- David Lammy, higher education minister
'The demand for political change is irresistible and it’s right across the political spectrum. Labour has a simple choice. It can instigate change or be swallowed by it. Every single selection from tomorrow could be decided by those who have expressed support for Labour. A spending cap could easily be set just as it is in every single election in the UK. It would bring people to Labour rather than repel them as some have erroneously claimed; it could become the start of a real movement for change. It would be a disaster if this just becomes some sort of intra-party factional battle. Someone will get this right. Why don’t we make it Labour?' - Anthony Painter, author of 'Barack Obama: The movement for change'
'The importance of politics is being lost as the representatives get further and further from the people. Open primaries are just one of the ways in which that gap can be closed. They will bring new blood into politics and, far from weakening political parties, they are a way to shake up their moribund structures.' - Philip Collins is chair of Demos
'All the big parties have seen membership levels decline in recent years. It is vital that Labour reconnects with its supporters - primaries are an important way in which those supporters can be given a real say. Far from undermining political parties I think primaries could help with party renewal and encourage more supporters to join as members.' - Stephen Twigg, Labour PPC for Liverpool West Derby
'The Progress campaign for primaries is a timely one, and I am happy to
support it. There has been a lively debate about how we could change
and revitalise the Labour party - and whether primaries could be part
of that - over the last few years. It is important that we now move to
thinking about how change might happen in practice.' - Sunder Katwala, general secretary of the Fabian Society
'Since the 1950s, Labour party membership has fallen from 1 million to 170,000. The average CLP now has under 300 members with some selections for PPCs being taken by just a handful of people, little more than an old members' club. If we want to re-engage liked minded people across our communities, the Labour party has a choice: to open up or die. This means an end to command-and-control policy making and an end to command-and-control candidate selection. Let's start with primaries for all mayoral elections and also for the CLPs where membership has slipped below 200.' - Will Straw, co-editor of 'The change we need: What Britain can learn from Obama's victory'
'There are many advantages to primaries – they let more people get
involved and encourage prospective Labour candidates to develop their
grassroots campaigning skills. At the moment, getting selected for
parliament as a Labour candidate is too often about ‘knowing the right
people’ and being able to spend lots of money - I can’t see any
downside in trying primaries to see if they work better and address
these problems.' - Don Paskini, Labour blogger
'I have never felt more involved in a political campaign than in the weeks and months before Super Tuesday. The people I worked alongside in Brooklyn came out to have their voices heard, working tirelessly on cold mornings and bleak nights to influence a process and to shape history from the earliest opportunity. What I saw inspired a movement, and I've never seen democracy work better. Labour needs that inspiration now. We need to energise our party, but more importantly than that we need to open our tired structures to the voices of the under-represented. Primaries will not solve everything, but they are the purest way to begin.' - Alex Smith, editor of LabourList.org
'Historic party activist-based procedures are tired, and everyone knows that. If people don’t then they are in denial. Labour politicians must connect with Labour supporters when they are selected as representatives, not just the same old Labour members through the same old committees. U.S.-style primaries, with appropriate safeguards, would be a breath of fresh air for the Labour movement and UK politics.' - Cllr. Theo Blackwell (Camden)
