Nominations have closed in elections to Labour’s national executive committee, with NEC member Ann Black topping the nominations in the Constituency Labour Party rep section, while candidates on the pro-Keir Starmer Labour to Win slate led those on the party’s left.
According to the Labour Party website, Black received 214 nominations from CLPs in her bid for reelection as a CLP rep on the party’s governing body, putting the long-standing NEC member well ahead of all other candidates. Black has the backing of the soft left Open Labour group.
The Labour to Win-backed candidates for CLP rep – Angie Davies, Abdi Duale, Anu Prashar, Jane Thomas, Mary Wimbury and Peter Mason – received between 62 and 142 nominations. Mason received the fewest nominations of the group, having been added to the slate later on in the process.
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Sitting NEC members Jess Barnard, Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar and Mish Rahman – the four candidates backed by the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA), an umbrella group of organisations on the left of the party – received between 66 and 69 nominations.
Candidates in the CLP rep section required the backing of at least five local Labour Parties to be included on the ballot for the nine positions on the NEC. The party said 27 candidates had met the required threshold. A full list is included below, in alphabetical order.
Some other roles on NEC elected unopposed
The party confirmed the NEC’s current BAME rep Carol Sewell, disabled members rep Ellen Morrison and treasurer Mike Payne have all been reelected unopposed after no other candidates met the nomination requirements in those sections. Claire Reynolds was also elected unopposed as the NEC’s socialist society rep.
READ MORE: PLP elections: Morden becomes chair as Akehurst and Singh Josan return to NEC
Two candidates have received enough nominations to make the ballot for the NEC’s youth rep position, Elsie Greenwood, the current NEC youth rep, and India Rees, while Ann Jones and Jackie Owen will go head to head to be the governing body’s next Welsh rep.
Five candidates are on the ballot for the two local government rep positions: Soraya Adejare, Elizabeth Dennis, Claire Holland, Minesh Parekh and Peter Wheeler.
Black ‘honoured’ to receive backing of so many CLPs
Ann Black told LabourList: “I’m honoured that so many CLPs have again put their trust in me, as a loyal, experienced and independent voice. After a brilliant general election victory, the challenge now is to deepen support though building a prosperous, equal and sustainable society.
“That requires maintaining unity: those who put faction, right or left, before party and country will put success at risk. And it means valuing every volunteer in every constituency, whether safe or marginal.
“If reelected I will work to improve communications with members, to give local parties a role in choosing candidates and to develop progressive policies, including tackling child poverty, through the National Policy Forum in partnership with government.”
Labour to Win: ‘We need an NEC that will keep our party united’
Following the closing of nominations, Labour to Win said in a post on X: “A massive thank you to the 100+ CLPs who have nominated our fantastic NEC candidates. With Labour finally in power, we need an NEC that will keep our party united, strong and in power across the country.”
Labour to Win-backed candidate and current NEC member Abdi Duale told LabourList: “We are delighted to see the strong support members have shown Labour to Win candidates over the past few weeks. Personally, I am grateful to the 142 CLPs from across the country that have nominated me to return to the NEC.
“Now more than ever our party needs to remain united and supportive of the new Labour government. The election victory was won on the back of the hard-fought changes we as members made within the party so that the country could trust us to govern once again.
“I hope with the support of members that I can continue working on that change to ensure we remain in power and make working people’s lives better.”
Rahman: ‘Party needs an NEC which challenges the leadership’
CLGA-backed candidate Mish Rahman said: “The party needs an NEC which challenges the leadership robustly on policy and governance where there are disagreements in views as opposed to a body that agrees with the leadership all the time which eventually leads to a weaker party in government without a diversity of opinion. This is visible from the spread of nominations.”
His fellow CLGA-backed candidate Jess Barnard told LabourList: “We’ve heard loud and clear calls for party democracy from CLPs all over the UK who were denied a say in their candidate selections. We need an NEC which will answer those calls and uphold member democracy and end selection stitch-ups.
“It’s clear from speaking with hundreds of members there is huge demand for transformative policies. Now with a Labour government we will be making sure they deliver the change we need – including an end to cruel Tory austerity policies, lifting children out of poverty and delivering change we can be proud of in our communities.”
According to the party website, ballots in the various elections will take place in the coming weeks. Labour said the following 27 candidates have received the required nominations to make the ballot in the CLP section:
- Zahida Abbas Noori
- Cat Arnold
- Jess Barnard
- Ann Black
- Gemma Bolton
- Charlotte Cornell
- Yasmine Dar
- Adam Davies
- Angie Davies
- Abdi Duale
- Dot Foster
- David Littlefair
- Peter Mason
- Teresa Murray
- Priti Paintal
- Nick Palmer
- Natasa Pantelic
- Neeraj Patil
- Cath Pinder
- Emily Pomroy-Smith
- Anu Prashar
- Luthfur Rahman
- Mish Rahman
- Kaz Self
- Jane Thomas
- Mary Wimbury
- John Wiseman
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