Iain McNicol confirms CLP reorganisation “will not now go ahead”

Yesterday we reported that Labour’s CLP reorganisation was “set to be scrapped” following Nick Clegg’s bounday change u-turn. Today, in a letter to CLPs and MPs, General Secretary Iain McNicol has confirmed that the CLP organisation in England and Wales “will not now go ahead”. However the reorganisation along along Scottish Parliament constituency boundaries will still take place for Scottish CLPs.

The letter is reproduced in full below:

To: all CLP Chairs, Secretaries, Treasurers and MPs

7 August 2012

Dear Colleague,

Important Information: Boundary Review

In the past few weeks you will have received correspondence from the party regarding plans to reorganise CLPs and reselect parliamentary candidates for new constituencies, from January 2013.

These plans were formulated in response to the boundary review, which was established by the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Act 2010. However, internal divisions within the governing coalition over constitutional reform have now derailed the review, with Nick Clegg announcing yesterday that:

I have told the Prime Minister that when, in due course, parliament votes on boundary changes for the 2015 election I will be instructing my party to oppose them.

In view of the fact that the boundary review appears extremely unlikely to come into force, the reorganisation of CLPs in England next year will not now go ahead. Nor will there be any reorganisation of CLPs in Wales, although the reorganisation of CLPs in Scotland along Scottish Parliament constituency boundaries will proceed as planned.

In addition, the plan to reselect parliamentary candidates for new constituencies proposed by the boundary review will not now take place.

Instead, information on a timetable and process for selecting and reselecting candidates for existing constituencies will be provided in due course.

We will continue to keep these matters under review.

Yours sincerely,

Iain McNicol

General Secretary