Campaign news

Supporting Nominations for Jeremy Corbyn

23rd July 2016

Supporting Nominations for Jeremy Corbyn

Nominations for candidates for the leader of the Labour Party must be made by MPs or MEPs. Nominations have now closed. We know that Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith will be on the ballot paper.

• Comrades may have read or heard that all local Labour Party meetings have been cancelled for the duration of the leadership contest. That is not correct. We are entitled to hold meetings for Supporting Nominations for leader and for LP Conference business.

• It is also not the case that these meetings must be confined to General Committee meetings. It is possible to call all member meetings for the purpose of Supporting Nominations for leader. Here’s the official Labour Party guidance:

“Should a CLP decide to make a supporting nomination, they may do so using either an all member meeting or a meeting of the General Committee.”
Obviously all Jeremy Corbyn supporters will want as many members as possible to participate in the debate. An all member meeting is much preferable to a GC for this purpose. Press your Party officers to organise one.

• Some Party officers are trying to organise meetings as quickly as possible in order to involve as few members as they can. This is the usual rule below. Insist that it is carried out:

“Members should receive seven days written notice of the meeting.”

• The guidance for the meetings tries to minimise discussion of the political issues. Be short and sweet:

“Prior to the ballot, a discussion will take place on the qualities of the nominees. This should last for a maximum of 30 minutes, with no member speaking more than once, and for not more than three minutes each.”

• The Chair is supposed to be impartial. If they are a known right winger, who has expressed preferences, they should be challenged:

“The CLP Chair will normally chair the meeting, but it is important that impartiality is seen to be shown from the chair.”

• As with Registered Supporters and Affiliated Supporters, the NEC has disenfranchised any member who joined the Labour Party after January 12th 2016.

• There will be a membership check at any meeting for Supporting Nominations. Be aware.

• The deadline for Supporting Nominations will close at 12.00 noon on Monday, 15 August.

For the complete guidelines,
see here

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