Luke Akehurst: Why I’m standing for Labour’s NEC

I served on Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) from 2010 to 2012. Now, in very different political circumstances, I am seeking to get elected again to the NEC in the OMOV ballot later this summer. Right now, CLPs are nominating candidates and I have already secured nominations from 30 CLPs.

I love the Labour Party and have served it for 30 years as an activist, councillor, CLP officer, agent, parliamentary candidate and former NEC member. I am standing as a “Labour First” candidate because I will put the Labour Party – not Momentum – first. The dominance of the CLP seats on the NEC by Momentum is unbalanced, unrepresentative of the diversity of views among Labour members and bad for party unity.

I will oppose moves by Momentum to change the party rulebook to their partisan advantage. I will defend hard-working incumbent MPs and councillors from sectarian deselection bids. I will fight to stop Momentum from acting as a bridgehead into Labour for entryists from rival far-left parties.

We need an NEC where all the traditions and currents of opinion in the Labour Party are represented, and work together to plan how to beat the Tories in the next general election, not one dominated by one faction pursuing a narrow and partisan agenda about its own internal control of the party.

I bring a 30 year track-record as a grassroots campaigner against the Tories and Lib Dems. I’ve run for parliament twice, and been an agent and campaign manager in both parliamentary and council elections, including reducing the Tory, Lib Dem and Green presence on Hackney Council from 31 seats to just seven. This experience means I can make a serious contribution to creating an election-winning Labour Party.

I’ve written publicly about my politics for many years, so I can’t – and in any case would never want to – hide my politics to court popularity. Everything I stand for is in the public domain and I am happy to be judged on it. I’m active in politics because I’m passionate about my beliefs.

I’m a social democrat. I stand in the Labour tradition that is as proud of Attlee’s creation of both NATO and the NHS, the tradition of Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison, Hugh Gaitskell, Denis Healey and Roy Hattersley. Greater equality and greater freedom aren’t in conflict, you can’t enjoy a more equal society unless you are free, and you can’t be truly free if you are in poverty. You can manage and regulate markets. You can have a mixed economy with a strong, redistributive state and a dynamic private sector. We must oppose tyranny, dictatorships and terrorism just as strongly when they come from the extreme left as the extreme right.

I’m proud of what Labour achieved in government under Blair and Brown and want to build on it, particularly in the area of tackling poverty and inequality. But we have to listen to why voters abandoned us and rebuild our economic credibility. In 2015 the party chose to veer sharply to the left, as we did after 1979. I think this was a disastrous strategic mistake. Whilst our vote increased in 2017 we still lost our third election in a row and are not competitive in many of the seats where general elections are won and lost. We should be miles ahead in the polls against this feeble Tory government and its appalling austerity and cuts. We are not, because we are not projecting ourselves as a responsible alternative government.

I want a bold strategy where we aim to build a coalition broad enough to win a convincing parliamentary majority. To do that we will need radical but realistic policies. We will have to develop ideas that appeal to people who voted Labour in the past but have recently backed UKIP and the Tories, particularly older and more prosperous voters. I support: in-sourcing public sector contracts wherever possible, rail renationalisation, a big house building programme, a national living wage, banning zero hours contracts, more free childcare. I am passionate about tackling poverty and inequality. As a parent and cancer survivor I will fight to defend our NHS and schools from Tory cuts. Any credible party of government needs to be trusted with national defence, and I am a strong supporter of renewing the Trident strategic nuclear deterrent and increasing the funding of our armed forces.

I’m a pro-European. I am a long-term member of the European Movement and the Labour Movement for Europe. I was Vice-President of ECOSY, the youth wing of the Party of European Socialists, from 1997 to 2001. I campaigned for Remain. I argued for a stronger Labour stance in favour of the customs union at my local CLP – and we won. I don’t want Brexit and if it has to happen I want the softest Brexit possible, to minimise the economic impact and give us the option of rejoining the EU if public opinion shifts. I support the LabourSay.EU campaign to ensure members and affiliates have a meaningful say on our Brexit policy at annual conference.

Organisationally, I want the NEC to tackle the nitty gritty of rebuilding the party. There are geographical pockets where CLPs are thriving and there is excellent campaigning best practice, but in too much of the country we have let our organisation atrophy. The massive influx of new members during 2015 has not been evenly spread across the country and intensive work needs to be done to train and enthuse the new members to become active campaigners and to sustain this all year round, not just in the excitement of general election campaigns.

I want to see a priority made of regeneration of branches and CLPs nationwide and building their campaigning capacity. Members are our greatest asset but our membership is too white, southern and middle class compared to our voters, and this distorts the priorities of the party. We need an even bigger membership that reflects the socio-economic and geographical diversity of the coalition of people who we need to vote Labour. We also need to continue to rebuild our base in local government as there is a direct link between winning councillors and building our local campaigning base.

My approach to serving on the NEC was demonstrated in 2010-2012 and is characterised by:

• Transparency. As a constituency rep on the NEC from 2010-2012 I reported back to CLPs (and to members via the internet) in writing after every meeting (within the obvious constraints about any confidential agenda items). Too much of what the NEC does can be shrouded in byzantine secrecy. Party members need to know what their representatives are doing in their name and what the justifications are for NEC decisions.
• Activism and accountability. I don’t think the NEC should just sit in London in meetings. In my previous term on the NEC I got round the country to report back to and listen to members and join them campaigning.
• Objectivity and even-handedness. When the NEC takes decisions that affect ordinary members there needs to be confidence that NEC members are taking decisions based on upholding the Rulebook and natural justice, not helping out our mates or political allies. My track record dealing with difficult disciplinary and selection issues as a council Chief Whip for seven years, as a regional board member and on the NEC Disputes Panel shows that I do the right thing when confronted with contentious issues, not do what is politically expedient.
• Putting members first. Wherever possible I want to put control in the hands of local members and CLPs and maximise local autonomy and democracy – particularly regarding selection of candidates. My track record where I took decisions on the NEC Organisation Committee and its panels demonstrates this.
• Independent-mindedness. I think for myself and judge decisions on their merits whatever the pressure – for instance backing Iain McNicol in the closely contested vote to pick a new general secretary even though Ed Miliband personally asked me to back another candidate. (This may come as a surprise to some newer members but Iain was the left candidate for general secretary, also backed by Unite and the predecessors of Momentum).

Sadly, the internal culture of the party has taken a dramatic turn for the worse since 2015, with shameful antisemitism and a broader problem of bullying, online abuse and unnecessary and obsessive factionalism of elections and selections that should be decided on merit, not factional alignment.

The NEC must take decisive action to clean up the party’s toxic internal culture before it destroys us. We need zero tolerance of and tough disciplinary action against antisemitism and any other racism. Bigots who stereotype or peddle conspiracy theories or cause deliberate distress to Jews or any other community have no place in the Labour Party. The NEC needs to reiterate its adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, and publicise this to every members, along with training events and materials, so that members can recognise antisemitism, avoid it and call it out.

The NEC must start taking decisive action to end the culture that has developed of online abuse, bullying of people who dissent within the party, threats of deselection against MPs and councillors who think for themselves, use of absurd insults like “neo-liberal”, “imperialist” and “Red Tory” to describe fellow party members. This toxic culture of hate is uncomradely and has to end.

Over 48,000 members voted for me the last time I stood in 2016. I hope this time that even more will recognise that my return to the NEC alongside my excellent colleagues Lisa Banes, Johanna Baxter, Jasmin Beckett, Eda Cazimoglu, Marianna Masters, Heather Peto, Gurinder Singh Josan, and Mary Wimbury would help bring changes that would significantly improve the politics, organisation and internal culture of the Labour Party, and create a renewal of member representation on the NEC that would contribute to a Labour victory at the next general election.