Jess Barnard Profile picture
Nov 29, 2022 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Today I attended (virtually) the Labour NEC away day, where key issues around the Forde Report and Equalities were decided.

Sadly, it was another bad day for democracy and anti-racism in Labour. THREAD 🧵
The Forde Report was a sobering read for all of us,

Central among Forde’s recommendations was the establishment of a new, independent Directorate to oversee the Party’s disciplinary & regulatory affairs.

But today, the NEC voted not to establish such a body.
The reasons given don’t stack up, in my view.

The Party suggests this is to remain EHRC-compliant. Yet a key EHRC recommendation was for independent disciplinary processes: exactly what Forde proposed.

Their arguments, including on cost, remained unsubstantiated & unevidenced.
From selections to suspensions, it’s clear that the Party’s processes are *not* being applied independently or fairly - but rather, in many cases, for factional gain.

I myself have been targeted.

Members deserve better.
An NEC sub-committee was formed to review other recommended responses to Forde from the Party.

Some are concerning, like the refusal to commit to update respondents on the progress of complaints. Members have been left waiting months or years, often on spurious grounds.
On equalities, the Leadership’s reported plans to ditch the democratic structures for BAME and Disabled members were passed, despite votes against from the Left.

This goes against Labour’s rulebook and agreements made repeatedly within the Party over the past four years.
After the racism and Islamophobia scandals of recent months, we argued that members of colour need their own democratic structures within the party to have their voices heard.

That’s what thousands of members told us in the Democracy Review, and what Conference voted for.
As leading Black Labour members have told us, and the Party itself admitted today, BAME Labour is not up to the task.

The agreement today also means that BAME members will have to pay an additional membership fee to BAME Labour to have a vote on electing their national committee
This move ignores the BAME members who have consistently demanded genuine representation and creates another unjust financial barrier to democratic representation.

Ultimately those proposals passed, and BAME and disabled members will now not get the structures they were promised
This risks doing significant damage to Labour’s relations with core constituencies ahead of the next GE.

Equalities structures are not a distraction, they are an essential part of empowering all our members, creating genuine representation and addressing decades of inequality.

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More from @JessicaLBarnard

Sep 27, 2023
There have been a lot of rumours and reports flying around about Labour’s NEC meeting yesterday, heres my report back to members:
I joined online as I couldn’t travel to Scotland this week. Unfortunately the microphone/closed captions couldnt pick up the sound accurately, so we werent able to hear all the contributions, a number of us raised this repeatedly as an ongoing accessibility issue.
The headlines from the meeting were of course, the proposed rule changes which will be put to Labour national conference this year. The NEC debates the rule changes, and then takes a decision to support or oppose them.

The rule changes were discussed in bulk sections.
Read 16 tweets
Jun 16, 2023
A couple of hours prior to this tweet, Labours NEC meeting had just kicked off. On the agenda was the matter of sitting MPs and new boundaries. There was, thankfully, just one constituency where two sitting MPs were contesting the seat - Birkenhead.
The new seat contained all of Mick Whitleys constituency and (I understand) around 11% of Alison McGoverns dissolved constituency. It was argued Alison was eligible to contest the seat as there was not a neighbouring seat in which she could have a claim.
The point was raised that Margaret Greenwood intended not to restand, making a neighbouring seat available and a Labour MP fight over Birkenhead, completely avoidable. We were told the party had not been informed of her intention not to restand.
Read 7 tweets
Aug 31, 2021
This is a disappointing and difficult thread to post, so buckle up!

A few months ago, myself and @lara_eleanor met with David Evans once we were told the party would not be holding a young labour conference this year, despite it being a rulebook requirement.
We tried to negotiate, made the case for democratic engagement but were outright refused. I asked David Evans if he would inform young members that this was his call and if he would provide YL with more resources at national conference to make up for it. He agreed to both.
Its worth noting here that during all this we have had nothing from Keir Starmer or the leaders office since being elected almost a year ago. No acknowledgement we exist, no reply to emails, nothing.
Read 9 tweets
Nov 23, 2020
Young members put their faith in me as Chair of Young Labour to represent them. As a democratic socialist I stand with young members and their right to engage with the Labour party’s long standing democratic traditions. Now, more than ever, young people's voices need to be heard. ImageImage
When thousands of young renters face eviction through no fault of their own, Labour’s leadership say that rent cancellation is “un-Labour”.

When thousands of young people march for black lives in a worldwide movement, Labour’s leadership condescend them and call it a “moment”.
When thousands of young people are concerned about the existential threat to the planet faced by the climate crisis, Labour’s leadership rows back in its commitment to the Green New Deal.
Read 5 tweets
Oct 12, 2020
🎉🎉Competition time 🎉🎉

Guess how many T%RF accounts I had to block today?

Closest guess gets to pick a charity supporting trans people for me to donate some of my cllr allowance to ❤️ (voting closes in 24 hours)
It'll go higher ✊
Correct answer was 401! These are accounts which have been posting transphobic content, defending it, liking it, continually pestering trans people and allies often under the guise of debate. Lots are duplicate accounts, abusive and pride themselves on patronising young people.
Read 4 tweets
Apr 13, 2020
This report is particularly damming on some staff members track record on mental health. The party must act now to address this abelist and abusive culture towards MH, and ensure the worst perpetrators never again hold positions of power in our party. A thread: 1/9
Senior staff here discuss Corbyns chief of staff, referring to her as 'crazy' 'fuckwit' 'bitch face cow' 'crazy snakehead lazy' 'medusa monster' 'would make a good dartboard'. 2/9
One of the most disgusting pieces in this report, senior staff commenting that they hope a young member who they recognise has mental health problems, dies in a fire, with multiple staff members joking about this. 3/9
Read 10 tweets

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