Labour left candidates win key posts for party conference

The Labour leadership’s favoured candidates Seema Chandwani and Billy Hayes have topped the poll and been elected again as membership representatives on the key Conference Arrangements Committee.

The successful duo were backed by Labour left groups the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance, Momentum and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy. Jewish Voice for Labour also supported their bids.

The CAC is responsible for running Labour conference, taking place in Brighton later this month. The body is crucial in determining the timetable and topics debated on the conference floor.

Chandwani and Hayes, who were elected as a pair for a two-year term in 2017, won against Judi Billing, leader of the Labour group on Hertfordshire City Council, and Katie Curtis, a former parliamentary candidate from LGBT Labour.

Billing and Curtis were on the Corbynsceptic slate, endorsed by organisations Labour First and Progress. They were backed by deputy leader Tom Watson.

In response to the results, Haringey councillor Chandwani tweeted: “Thank you soooo much! This Tottenham Council Estate girl has topped the ballot again! I’m sooo humbled and grateful”.

The one-member-one-vote CAC election this year saw a drop in participation compared to 2017, when Chandwani won 109,763 votes compared to 53,606 and Hayes secured 92,205 rather than 43,763.

But the gap between the successful candidates and next two has been consistent, with the top Corbynites winning by a margin of around 2:1 in both elections. The contrast with CAC results in 2015, when Katy Clark and Jon Lansman fell far behind the ‘moderate’ candidates, shows the extent to which the party has changed.

Local party nominations for candidates closed on July 14th, then ballots were sent out in late July. Voting closed at noon on September 12th.

Results were also announced today of the elections for Police and Crime Commissioner candidates and an Association of Labour Councillors representative.

West Midlands PCC candidate result:

Simon FOSTER

Merseyside PCC candidate result:

South Wales PCC candidate result:

Staffordshire PCC candidate result:

Leicestershire PCC candidate result:

Ross WILLMOTT

ALC representative – North West