being confident beyond a shadow of a doubt

We were pleased that nine amendments were submitted to the party’s proposed text – by CLP, trade union and socialist society reps – calling for Labour in government to introduce a form of PR for general elections. Well over 40% of all submissions made to the NPF on any policy issue included a call for Proportional Representation (PR) for general elections.Įvery single CLP NPF representative was invited to one of the eleven regional NPF reps meetings L4ND convened some half of them turned up and participated in hours of discussion with hundreds of members about why Labour must take on reforming the voting system as part of its wider package of democratic reforms. Labour for a New Democracy (L4ND) and its supporters across the party have engaged with the NPF to an unprecedented scale. Made up of representatives of all sections of the party – including Constituency Labour Parties (CLP), trade unions, socialist societies, local councillors, Shadow Cabinet and the Parliamentary Labour Party – the NPF’s various commissions met in late July to deliberate on the broad policy platform from which Labour would launch its bid for government and derive its general election manifesto.

Labour last held a full National Policy Forum (NPF) process a decade ago. The culmination of this year’s party-wide consultation and deliberation on its policy programme – which is still to be ratified at conference in October – is significant for the fact that it happened at all as well as the substance of its conclusions.

Labour policy now reflects the fact that first-past-the-post is both flawed and having deeply damaging effects on British democracy, piling pressure on the party to address the problems it has identified. In a major step forwards for electoral reform, Labour’s National Policy Forum (NPF) has formally recognised that the UK’s current voting system is driving “alienation and distrust” in our politics.

Being confident beyond a shadow of a doubt