‘Now is the time for the Northern Irish Labour Party to stand candidates’

The Labour Party is currently in the process of reviewing our policy of not contesting elections in Northern Ireland. We strongly believe that the time is now right for our party to take some cautious steps towards providing voters there the opportunity to vote for Labour Party candidates.

There are two compelling reasons why we have arrived at that conclusion. First, there is growing evidence that, post the Good Friday Agreement, there is a sizable group of people in Northern Ireland who, regardless of their religious and constitutional preferences, increasingly want the option to vote for parties not rooted in the sectarianism of the past.

Secondly, there is a functioning Labour Party (LPNI) in the country which has the appetite and ambition to field candidates in order to provide an option to vote for a non-sectarian centre-left party. Moreover, affiliated trade unions have significant membership there (in many cases on a cross-border basis), 40,000 of whom pay the political levy.

LPNI, with a membership at its recent peak of 2,000, have made a sensible submission to the review which, we believe, offers a strong rationale for making some modest moves in that direction.

Indication of a shift in identity- away from sectarianism

The LPNI submission cites a Lucid Talk poll which found that one in three people in the country believe LPNI should contest elections. Given that local government and Assembly elections in Northern Ireland are conducted under the Single Transferable Vote system, the possibility of splitting the vote is minimal, but there would be a prospect of Labour candidates being elected.

The 2020 Northern Ireland Life and Times survey found that 42% of residents identify as “other”, rather than nationalist and unionist. The Lucid Talk poll indicated that in PR elections for the NI Assembly, for example, as many as 6% of the electorate would opt to give their first preference to Labour candidates. Around two in five people would give Labour a preference vote: ie first preference or second or lower preference.

That shift in identity choice has, in recent elections, resulted in a surge of support for the Alliance Party, which is explicitly non-sectarian. In our view, part of the electoral space currently occupied by Alliance would, if we were to field Labour candidates, be available to our Party.  There is, moreover, a democratic argument: if people in Northern Ireland want to have the choice of voting Labour, it is surely the case that we have a responsibility to give them that option.

Other commitments need not prevent Northern Irish Labour candidates

One of the barriers that has previously been cited as preventing Labour from fielding candidates, rests on our membership of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The last review carried out by Labour, concluded that “it is a long-standing convention that sister parties [which assumes that all other PES parties, including the SDLP, fall into that category] do not stand against each other”.

Since then, however, PES have made it clear that no such convention exists. Indeed, PES member parties already compete against each other in Belgium, Italy and Poland.

Although there is undeniably, a lot of common ground between Labour and the SDLP, the fact that they are an avowed nationalist party is problematic for voters who do not identify themselves in such terms. The LPNI, mindful of that common ground, suggest mechanisms for co-operating with the SDLP and parties with similar values in the Republic which, subject to discussion, could reflect the synergy which we accept, does exist. 

The Co-operative Party, which is, for example, closely connected to the Labour Party (with Labour candidates standing for election as Labour-Co-operative), already operates on that basis and there are SDLP members who are simultaneously Co-operative Party members. Trade unions also have members in both parties and, as stated above, a large number pay the political levy. We should make it clear, however, that we are not advocating any form of electoral pact.

It is, therefore, not the case that Labour membership of PES is a barrier to Labour fielding candidates in elections.

Steps towards standing candidates

LPNI has, as indicated above, advocated cautious steps towards contesting elections.

As they put it in their most recent submission to the review, “LPNI will initially concentrate on electing councillors in our 11 District Council areas”.  They go on to say that such an approach would “provide a strategy to develop in terms of volunteers/members recruitment, funding, brand recognition and general support”.

This approach is, we believe, a good starting point which would enable us as a party to embrace the changes which are already taking place in Northern Ireland. As a centre-left party which contests elections in England, Scotland and Wales, we contend that, not to do so in Northern Ireland, denies the people there a legitimate democratic choice.

As Keir Starmer put it in the Times, in December 2021, “I do think we should have a Labour candidate that people can vote for wherever they live and depriving them of that is not the right thing to do”.  We strongly agree with Keir.