Activists say work is not yet done

From @LabourList

The following is a letter sent tonight (Tuesday) from the Labour activists who originally composed the letter to the NEC. You can still add your name to the list of signatories of the original letter by emailing [email protected]. Also, listen to Tom Flynn – PPC for Southend West and one of the oringial composers of the letter – speak about his disappointment with the NEC proposals yesterday (at 24 mins).

Dear Friends,

We just wanted to write to thank you for taking the time to sign our letter submitted to today’s NEC meeting. It took a lot of courage to sign a letter that would inevitably fall into the public domain and be discussed by the Party leadership.

Particular Thanks
We would particularly like to thank members of Labour Party Staff who stood with us in this effort. Understandably they were unable to join us as signatories, but showed their support in the form of texts and private emails.

We sincerely thank the leading political blogs, LabourList, LabourHome and Liberal Conspiracy for their enthusiastic coverage and by encouraging our Party members to sign up. We would urge you to regularly read these blogs and add your voices to the debates that will undoubtedly continue to take place.

Where we are now
As of this evening, more than 200 Parliamentary Candidates, Party Officers, Councillors, former staff and other loyal activists from across the UK, have jointly signed today’s letter to the NEC, calling for our leadership to put the reputation and wellbeing of the Labour Party before the interests of a minority of MPs, who have let our movement down.

While undoubtedly well-meaning, we feel that the proposals stated today by our Prime Minister, and agreed by our NEC, lack the necessary teeth to help restore our Party’s credibility with hard working members of the public.

In particular we are concerned that:

– An MP will not face sanction by the Party if they remained within Parliamentary rules – no matter how publicly damaging their expense claims may have been.

– Constituency Labour Parties remain unable to take action to challenge those MPs who have brought the Party into disrepute, without a system of approvals first from the leadership

We therefore reiterate our call to the NEC to:

– Organise a thorough review of suspected excessive and abusive claims – regardless of whether they were eventually signed off by an over-worked Fees Office.

– Support the immediate removal of the whip from individual MPs who have brought the party into disrepute over this issue and allow CLPs to trigger reselection ballots against them.

We therefore also ask that you encourage fellow activists to add their signatures to our letter, which will remain open until the situation has fundamentally changed.

Labour Party activists have once again come together to take a principled stance on one of the most important issues in modern politics. We are proud to be part of the Labour movement and all fellow signatories clearly remain loyal servants and inspiring champions of our Party.

Thank you for terrific support and we will keep you updated.

In solidarity,

Cllr. Richard Bingley

(Former Labour Party Press Officer)

Fred Grindrod

(National Policy Forum and Former Parliamentary Candidate)

Beryl Milnes

(Former Chair of Hemel Hempstead CLP)

Tom Flynn

(Labour Parliamentary Candidate)