National Policy Forum – Liveblog

11.11: So the NPF is over, and delegates are heading home from Milton Keynes. So what kind of weekend has it been? Well as I wrote yesterday:

“a pledge card for 2015 is beginning to take shape:

• a million homes
• a new deal on rail ownership
• a higher (living?) minimum wage
• devolution to towns and cities
• tackling energy prices

As a pledge card that knocks 1997 into a cocked hat. And whilst I still think there’s considerable scope for greater radicalism in the months ahead, that’s far from a bad start. it may even be the most radical manifesto Labour has had in decades. And all of in the context of a Labour Party that is beginning to radically re-orientated the way in which it thinks about spending and the state.

The Labour Party has (so far) had far worse weekends than this.”

The weekend in Milton Keynes has proved to be a success, and as I argued last night (20.00) “the Labour Party hasn’t had much praise from an organisational point of view recently – but this much is clear. The hard work put in by party staff, Angela Eagle, Jon Cruddas and crucially the (sometimes maligned) leader’s office team has allowed the NPF to function well” – in particular, the party policy team and the political office in Miliband’s office have put in some hard yards this weekend, and the amount of consensus achieved is in no small part due to that work.

That’s all from the National policy Forum (2014) liveblog. Delegates are off home to have an afternoon in the sun, and I’m off to do likewise. We’ll be looking at the different policy papers in more detail in the weeks ahead. Next stop: Manifesto.

10.43: This is one of the big ones – here’s the agreed text on Rail, which looks like it’s kicking the current franchising model to the curb, as well as giving cities and towns new powers on transport (click to enlarge) – [Note: Previously this update contained a stray paragraph from a previous amendment which was not adopted by the NPF. The below text is what the NPF agreed]:

10.35: The NPF has come to a close, but before I close the liveblog, there’s the text of a couple of key agreements that I wanted to flag up. Here’s the wording delegates agreed on Trident (as per last night’s late night deal) – click to enlarge:

10.24: The McManus Amendment got just 14 votes out of 145 NPF delegates present. 125 voted against. Which means the NPF is – to all intents and purposes – finished. Here’s what the rejected amendment said:

10.19: The votes are starting – this shouldn’t take long. There’ll be support for an equalities statement, support for the amendments agreed by consensus, and then a vote on the McManus Amendment on austerity. An NPF delegate tells me things could be done in the next few minutes.

10.17: Angela Eagle has been re-elected Chair of the NPF by acclamation this morning. Well deserved – she’s done a good job of bringing people together and ensuring the process was conducted in a positive and constructive manner.

10.13: The McManus amendment is no. 329 – it’s the only contested amendment up for a vote today. It seems none of the unions will be supporting it, and so with few delegates backing it, it appears it’s a formality that the amendment will fall.

09.51: A few more details about the agreement on housing, which includes an agreement that when a council sells a council house it will replace it – one out, one in, and a commitment to doubling council tax on empty homes (both of which are seen as measures to end the housing crisis).

09.26: Delegates inside the NPF suggest that there will be few votes for the McManus amendment. One told me “lefty delegates seemed dismissive” about the push to a vote. If that’s true, the (near) consensus wording on the economy should pass with few problems when we come to a vote later this morning.

09.14: As things stand, there will only be one amendment voted on today – and that’s the austerity/emergency budget amendment. I still haven’t managed to get a copy of the text, but that may well be a fiery debate. This isn’t the ending I was expecting from an otherwise consensual NPF.

08.30: On a less serious not, one delegate tells me they saw members of the Shadow Cabinet singing at the NPF last night. Neither the song (Red Flag? Things can only get better?) nor the Shadow Cabinet members have yet been named…

Sunday 08.19: Morning everyone. There’s always one issue at the National Policy Forum that takes people by surprise. It seems that George McManus – a delegate from Yorkshire – is forcing a vote on austerity/an emergency budget. That’s surprised me (and many of the delegates) as the “emergency budget” amendment was one of the first amendments discussed, and everyone assumed it had been dealt with. Evidently not. That means a vote today on Labour’s economic policies, which means Ed Balls will be speaking in Milton Keynes again this morning.

As for George McManus, he tweeted a few days ago:

“Labour must win the election. People won’t vote for austerity.Change course or lose”

Sounds like he’s convinced of his argument. He’s unlikely to get much support from delegates considering all of the others who brought amendments around an emergency budget have now accepted the consensus wording, but we will have to see what happens over the next few hours. If I can get a copy of the wording of the McManus amendment, I’ll post it here.

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22.02: And while we’re on, here’s the consensus agreement on Free School Meals (click image to see bigger version):

21.53: It’s nearly ten at night – but (somewhat surprisingly) there’s a deal on Trident. Mammoth effort from all sides to reach consensus – for which shadow ministerial team and party staff evidently deserve credit. One source close to the negotiations told me this shows we are “a united party, determined to win the next election”. All of this means that Trident won’t be pushed to a vote tomorrow. In fact, there’s seemingly little that will go to a vote tomorrow. There were 44 amendments on Trident, now every single one of those has been dealt with to the extent that we don’t have a vote. I was certain we’d see a vote on Trident.

20.00: On the train leaving Milton Keynes. It’s worth reflecting the way that today was organised. It’s not easy to tread the line between having an open process and a process that descends into anarchy. It’s also hard to sustained an organised process without accusations of stitch ups. The Labour Party hasn’t had much praise from an organisational point of view recently – but this much is clear. The hard work put in by party staff, Angela Eagle, Jon Cruddas and crucially the (sometimes maligned) leader’s office team has allowed the NPF to function well.

Where possible, genuine deliberation and consensus has won out. As one senior party person told me this evening, there was far less “willy waving” at the Milton Keynes meeting than perhaps had been the case in the past. Everyone involved – staffers, politicians, affiliates and delegates alike – deserve credit for that.

19.00: Everything seems pretty much wrapped up here tonight. The odds on any late night meetings to thrash out deals seem minimal. As far as I can tell only a handful of the policy papers at most will be put to a vote tomorrow – one of those will be on Trident, but it seems that the consensus position (keeping Trident but going bigger on multilateralism) will win out.

The mood is friendly and optimistic – and after a long day I’m now leaving Milton Keynes.

I’ll continue to update the liveblog until the NPF officially comes to a close tomorrow lunchtime, but the outline of agreements on rail, housing and other key issues appear clear.

As I wrote earlier this afternoon, there’s the start of a strong pledge card for Labour emerging – but within the framework of tight financial constraints.

18.50: I can confirm that the bar at the National Policy Forum has opened.

And as it opens, pretty much all of the amendment meetings have come to a close. There’s agreement on a motion around Universal Free School Meals – Labour backing the policy, and perhaps looking at how we can go further than the government. I’m also hearing about a final wording on the rail amendment. I haven’t seen the wording, but if I get it I’ll add it to the liveblog later.

18.30: Labour’s frontbench have given “the firmest commitment to multilateralism in 25 years” – including looking at structure and composition of deterrent in 2015 review. Vernon Coaker and Kevan Jones seem to have really put the work in here. I’m also told Maria Fyfe – a prominent CND supporter in Scotland – has withdrawn her amendment.

17.36: Just had an interesting debate on Radio 4’s PM Programme about the NPF and in particular Labour’s spending plans. It really is important to state the extent to which spending restraint is informing these debates and the way in which all parts of the party are engaging with that. Indeed, I’ve already overheard one discussion in which spending in single digit millions (which is a rounding error in government spending terms), was considered too great a hurdle for a policy to be considered. This is a thrifty NPF (and I don’t mean the food – Lamb Rogan Josh and Naan bread, since you ask).

17.31: Remember that amendment on Israeli settlement goods? It seems there’s agreement on taking a European wide approach on settlements and that Labour “will not encourage or support” investment in settlement activity. Additionally, there has been a line added that states Labour’s desire to see an end to the blockade of Gaza (although I haven’t seen the final wording of that).

17.05: There was some contention earlier over what Labour’s policy on the cost of employment tribunals would be – currently cost is a big factor. There’s been an amendment now that says  “Labour will introduce a system where affordability will not be a barrier to justice” – which suggests Labour will take action on costly employment tribunals. 

16.55: Expect an “equality statement” to be part of the final NPF report. On Friday Angela Eagle suggested an additional statement on equalities to sit at the front of the final document. Meeting between key equality leads from across party after lunch have agreed some text. Lots of consensus on it, and it should be announced be Eagle tomorrow.

16.40: Co-op Party representatives on the NPF are pretty pleased with themselves.  I am told they have had a warm reception for their proposed amendments and have won commitments on co-op housing, co-op schools, support for co-ops and social enterprises including by the new British Investment Bank and new rights to information for pension savers.  Finally, but importantly for them, they say they haven’t been squeezed out of the rail debate and have won a pledge that co-operative principles will be applied in increasing the accountability to passengers and staff and exploration of co-op and mutual models.  Miliband was also positive about co-op housing models at the Q&A earlier, so they’ll be pleased with that too.

16.31: It really is scorching weather here in Milton Keynes this afternoon. I was worried that might mean lots of hot, sweaty and grumpy delegates. On the contrary, people are on the whole in a pretty upbeat mood. On housing, I hear CLP reps have agreed this afternoon amendments on the private renting sector, winning some really good stuff especially around putting in place measures to stop retaliatory evictions. Added to what seems to be an expanded house building offer, progress is being made.

15.07: Discussions are ongoing on rail – but it looks like consensus is coming, and it’s significant. One source close to the negotiations said that it’s the end of the existing franchising process and “the beginning of the end of rail privatisation”. Once there’s final wording on this, I’ll let you know.

14.03: Has there been some movement on Universal Free School Meals? Delegates pushing for the policy met with Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt in an effort to hammer out a deal. The complicating factor with this policy is not just cash though – it’s also that it runs across a number of different departments (health, education welfare), but it seems like it might end up being part of the final agreement here.

13.31: Seems there’s been some movement on rail and a deal is being thrashed out. My understanding is that rail unions and NPF delegates have met directly with Ed Miliband.

12.52: Strange finally being in the NPF venue at Milton Keynes today – everyone I’ve spoken to has been keeping up with the liveblog, so hello to all of you. And of course you can keep us all updated on the amendment meetings by emailing [email protected]. We’re 24 hours into the liveblog now. Another 24 hours to go…

12.42: One amendment meeting that’s happening at the moment is around Universal Free School Meals. Seemingly there’s some pressure being exerted on delegates to drop the push for Universal Free School Meals in Primary Schools, but there’s still the possibility of an agreement this weekend.

12.39: The Miliband Q&A session has ended now. Delegates are milling around the conference centre and heading into amendment meetings. I’ll let you know what comes out of them.

12.17: Obviously there have been questions on the Scottish Independence referendum too:

We need to get over the psychological barrier for non-scots feeling they don’t want to interfere in the referendum. Our message on social justice works against Salmond. We should be proud of the campaign. I think we are winning the argument. We still need to win the referendum.

12.01: There’s also a question on the NHS:

Not saying we will reshuffle all deck chairs in NHS as Tories did. Ideology and practicality guide us on NHS. Integration important idea.

11.52: A question on legal aid from the Q&A session:

Miliband says we will need to make savings in legal aid, but we would do it differently – and it’s an important but forgotten pillar of the welfare state.

And one on UKIP:

Can’t leave issues to be UKIP only issues. The anti-exploitation message on immigration is progressive. We were slow on agency work. UKIP feeds on idea that we’re all the same. We have a programme that will make a difference to the lives of UKIP voters. UKIP have lib dem strategy of attacking from both sides. Need exposing. Presence on the doorstep is best answer.

(Obviously all of these are paraphrased rather than direct quotes)

11.47: Here’s the highlights from the Q&A so far:

Syria – wider lesson, real solution has to be political and diplomatic. We should provide humanitarian support. One way we have changed as a party is that military action has now to be a last resort.

Equality – Seemingly an equalities audit on the manifesto is seen as a good idea.

11 plus – Miliband refuses to be drawn, says there are bigger questions.

11.40: Miliband’s speech ends with a prolonged and universal standing ovation. Unfortunately, it also ends with the media having to leave the room… There’s a Q&A on now. We’ll do our best to bring you some detail from that.

11.36: Miliband repeats pledge to repeal Tory Health and Social Care Bill, to thorough applause.

11.35: Clear pitch to those who loathe Gove from Miliband – if you want rid of Tory education policies you need a Labour government

11.33: Miliband promises “The biggest devolution of power in England that anyone has ever seen”

11.30: Miliband still using the “by the end of the next parliament” formulation of words on housing. Expect that to change based on debates at NPF.

11.23: This is a strong speech from Ed Miliband. I’ll do a full write up afterwards, but you can read the text here.

11.16: Miliband says Tory attacks on Labour show that they know Labour can win next year.

11.15: Miliband pays tribute to Angela Eagle (NPF Chair) and Jon Cruddas (Policy Review Chief) for their hard work. They’re hard at it this weekend…

11.12: Miliband says he “cannot explain, justify” the deaths of hundreds of civilians in Gaza – but he says Israel has the right to defend itself from rocket attacks.

11.11: Miliband pays a moving tribute to the victims of MH17. Thoughtful but statesmanlike response.

11.08: Eddie Izzard is here introducing Ed Miliband. Must be an important event…

11.01: Waiting for Miliband’s speech, but have just seen a housing amendment that seems to have consensus, committing Labour to building 200,000 homes a year. That’s a million homes in the next parliament – which goes far beyond the at least 200,000 homes a year by 2020 which had been committed to before. It even goes as far as saying that increased building will take place from the start of the next parliament as a priority. That seems like a big shift.

10.50: I am at the glamorous Kent Hill Park Conference and Training Centre – the venue for the NPF – and in the media holding room. There’s a few of us here (not many, truth be told) but Miliband’s speech looks like it’ll be on the News Channels. Unfortunately, as the NPF is a behind closed doors meeting (despite Labour members electing many of the delegates), the press (including me) will have to leave after Miliband’s speech.

Rest assured though, the liveblog will continue until the NPF comes to a close tomorrow afternoon.

10.06: As for the Trident debate, Labour CND have pushed back against the claim that there’s only small opposition to Trident now. They point to this as evidence of “overwhelming opposition” in CLPs. We shall see, if/when it goes to a vote on Sunday.

09.45: Quick clarification first – the motion I mentioned in the last update (09.00) should have said “boycott motion on goods from Israeli settlements” – which is obviously quite different. Apologies for the error – but there are a great deal of amendments in play here…

Saturday 09.00: Morning everyone. Today is a day full of amendment sessions – so say goodbye to those deliberative sessions. Amendment sessions, if you remember from yesterday, are the ones where there’s an attempt to reconcile differences between different amendments and the core policy papers before voting on Sunday.

So what are the current contentious issues? Well, last night I said there was still some acrimony over Trident. Seemingly some delegates have criticised those who oppose Trident, warning them they could damage the pro-union campaign in Scotland. The leadership view however seems to be that those opposed to Trident now form a small, principled unilateralist opposition who won’t be swayed by further concessions – they’re just fundamentally opposed. Lets see how that pans out.

Another issue to keep an eye on today is a motion on the Middle East. There appears to be some concern amongst the leadership that a boycott motion on Israel will get referred to conference. That’s obviously something they’d rather avoid.

And of course Ed Miliband is speaking at 11am. I’ll be reporting that live (they let me into the building for the speech) – but you can read our preview here.

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22.40: It’s nearly 11pm, but the behind the scenes NPF negotiations and deliberations are still ongoing. I spoke to TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes a little while ago, who was involved in the “pressure cooker negotiations” on rail. He told me “It’s hot, it’s fraught; but we are making progress on what could be the most fundamental paradigm shift in Labours direction on last 25 years”. And a London CLP delegate told me that they were “turning up the dial to 11′ to get a fares deal on rail that would win in South East marginal seats for Labour”. There’s also more on Trident – which I’ll bring you all up to speed with in the morning.

I’m saying goodnight – but things are still ongoing, so that might be a little optimistic…

20.40: I may have spoken too soon. It seems that Jon Cruddas is at the NPF venue and got straight into negotiations with both the rail unions and CLP delegates to finalise a deal on rail public ownership. A Union source confirmed that Cruddas has been pulled into an emergency rail roundtable (described by the union source as “pressure cooker negotiations”) – ahead of the unveiling of what is hoped to be a groundbreaking rail policy. If a deal is reached tonight, that’d allow Miliband to go much further in his speech tomorrow. It seems that’s what Cruddas is working on. We’ll bring you more on this overnight if we hear anything further.

20.11: All of the amendment meetings should have finished for the day now. There’s an NPF dinner this evening, so tools (and amendments) will be downed for the evening. But that doesn’t mean the negotiations will stop – activists, staffers (both party and union) will be working the venue tonight to see how things are panning out. If there are more updates this evening I’ll update the liveblog – if not, see you tomorrow morning for the next chapter.

19.20: Back at 16.24, I said that there was no consensus on Trident today. Well it appears there’s been some considerable movement. Shadow Defence Secretary Vernon Coaker and his team have been hard at work today, and have firmed up the party’s commitment to multilateralism. They’re hopeful that will persuade all but the most ardent opponents of Trident to back the motion, with only a handful forcing votes on Sunday. There’s another meeting starting soon on this issue, so we’ll know in the next hour or so.

19.08: There’s an interesting amendment debate in about half an hour on Universal Free School Meals. That’s obviously a policy that the Lib Dems now endorse, but before that it was a policy which was adopted by many local Labour Parties (and opposed viscerally by the Lib Dems). The GMB in particular have long been proponents of such a policy, and it’s up for debate tonight. Indeed, there were even rumours that Ed Balls looked into Universal Free School Meals as a policy when he was Education Secretary. This one might get pushed to a vote on Sunday. Watch this space…

19.00: Over an hour ago we told you that delegates had refused to withdraw amendments calling for full renationalisation of rail. Interestingly, we’re now learning that it was CLP delegates – not unions – who wouldn’t withdraw. More on this as we have it…

18.30: It’s fair to say that some arrive at the NPF better prepared than others. Here’s the CLPD’s Jon Lansman (as photographed by Jon Ashworth MP) in his office/campervan:

17.50: So no real developments in the past hour as far as I can tell – except that there’s still no consensus on rail. Miliband and his team will want to see that resolved tonight, before the Labour leader’s speech in the morning. Some delegates have refused to withdraw their support for full renationalisation – so the discussions will continue. Expect a series of bilateral meetings between leader’s office, unions and delegates themselves in an attempt to find a solution – neither the leader’s office nor the unions seem to want this rail debate to rumble on until Sunday…

16.50: I had an interesting conversation with a source close to Jon Cruddas earlier. It’s fair to say that years of work from Cruddas have gone into the process that’s happening this weekend (and will continue through conference and beyond). The thinking from Cruddas and his team is that what we’re seeing playing out this weekend is a “rethinking of what social democracy is”. A few years ago, the argument goes, it would have been difficult to forsee a Labour Party that embraced prevention and devolution, moved away from centralisation and wanted to change the shape of the economy. They’re calling it “The most radical overhaul for at least the last 30 years of what Labour and Social Democracy is” and argue that the change in the party towards a different kind of thinking “can’t be unwound now”, citing the amendments submitted as evidence of this. It’s a compelling argument

We’ve still got nearly 48 hours of amendments and jockeying for policy positions to go yet though, so lets see if they’re right. I’ll be writing more on this in the morning…

16.42: Hearing that the rail amendments meeting is “going to the wire” – Miliband will want to see that resolved, he’s planning on announcing a rail policy tomorrow morning…

16.24: It’s no surprise, but we aren’t going to get consensus on Trident today – that means the Trident amendments will be pushed to a vote on Sunday. Keep an eye on those…

15.57: The Education/school discussion meanwhile seems to have been less contentious – seemingly it was a small group discussion mainly focussed on the role of new directors of school standards and their links to LEAs. A more techie discussion on school reform than perhaps we might have expected.

15.55: In the low pay “deliberative session” earlier, the mood was very strongly against zero hour contracts. The feeling amongst delegates appears to be that they should be banned outright – whilst finding ways of providing flexibility for those who need it in other ways.

15.53: There are Trident amendments being discussed at the moment in what’s described as a “very packed room”. We’ll let you know what happens there.

15.43: The deliberative sessions are over for today – so what happens now? Well there are a series of “amendment meetings” where changes to the final documents are discussed. These make the final contours of any agreement look clearer, but not in a particularly transparent way. There doesn’t seem to be a publicly available timetable of these meetingsor who attends them? Sometimes important amendment meetings might clash with each other – so delegates can’t attend both. And as far as I can tell, delegates can only attend amendment meetings where they’re pushing for a change.

This process may be more open, transparent and democratic than previous policy processes – but it’s still got some flaws, and transparency is one of them. (That’s the reason for this liveblog of course, to try and enforce a little transparency…). If you’re at the NPF and can give us (and therefore Labour activists more generally) any more details, you can email [email protected] in confidence….

15.25: This tweet from Alon Or-bach seems to explain why the transport session is mostly about buses:

@LabourList The session may be focussing on buses as got a rail amendment meeting later in afternoon, including public ownership #LabNPF

14.55: A delegate in the transport section contacts us to say that there aren’t many people there, and the debate seems to be largely about buses rather than rail. That’s odd, when rail is likely to be one of the defining policy areas of this NPF. However, a press release on Crossrail from the Labour-affiliated TSSA union earlier today included this line “If Labour wins next year, the GLA, along with Scotland and Wales, will have devolved powers to directly operate all trains and buses in the capital”. Does that mean Labour’s commuter train network is coming into TfL?

14.50: Most of the amendment meetings aren’t meant to happen until later this afternoon, but there was one over lunchtime titled “emergency budget” – essentially an attempt to prioritise infrastructure investment and move away from Tory spending plans. It now looks like that amendment will be dropped, but that the mansion tax will be in the manifesto. There are also rumours of someone shouting at Ed Balls in that amendment meeting- if we can confirm that we will later on. Update: Now hearing (17.56) that there was no-one shouting at Balls in the meeting – false alarm.

14.44: The NPF delegates are back after lunch and so am I. This afternoon there are three more deliberative sessions:

– low pay
– transport
– schools

13.35: The NPF meeting has broken up for lunch for the next hour – so I’ll be back with you then. One of the sessions coming up next is on rail, and last night I wrote about where the party currently stands on the railways coming into this NPF weekend. More on that this afternoon.

13.23: There are some short (30 minute) amendment meetings taking place already – including one on workplace rights. All sessions will be coming to a close for lunch though in about 10 minutes – but we’ll let you know if anything major emerges from the amendment meetings (there are many more later today).

13.04: No news yet from the NHS deliberative session. They’ll be discussing NHS spending as well as plans to integrate health and social care. If you’re a delegate and you’re in that session, drop us an email to [email protected] and let us know how it’s going.

12.50: Meanwhile in the housing session, it’s clear that one of the big dividing lines on housing this weekend will be whether councils are allowed to borrow more to build.

12.46: Interesting to see the breadth of the panel taking part in the defence/Trident session – both CND and BAE Systems are represented in the debate. Here’s a photo of the session as tweeted by NPF rep Alon Or-bach:

12.42: After the opening “plenary” sessions with Eagle and Balls, the delegates have now moved into three morning “deliberative” sessions. These are:

– defence capability/Trident
– housing
– NHS

12.30: Labour’s major National Policy Forum (NPF) meeting has kicked off in Milton Keynes this morning, and will continue until Sunday – as will this liveblog. Already this morning Angela Eagle (the NPF Chair) has given her opening remarks, calling for the radical spirit of 1945 to influence the delegates. That was followed by Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, whose calls for financial restraint led to questions from the floor on public sector pay – expect that to be a big issue in Milton Keynes this weekend.

For a full NPF preview – here’s my piece from this morning.

National policy forum delegates can contact us directly (and anonymously) by email ([email protected]) to keep us updated.

 

(h/t: Andy Furlong for the photo)