‘Why we want to Renew Young Labour’

Labour’s victory in 2024, the result of years of work by members from every corner of the country and the Party, offered the first real chance of hope for the country in almost 14 years. This was especially true for young people, who were little more than an afterthought for a Tory government that revelled in attacking us. We were granted an opportunity, and a mandate, for transformation. 

But since then, youth membership of our Party has collapsed to a mere fraction of what it once was, and disillusioned Labour Clubs are defecting and supporting other political movements. We are at a crisis point, which makes the upcoming Young Labour elections critical to the future of our voice in the Party.

As nominations open this week, we are launching ‘Renew Young Labour’. We are formed of young members from across the party, who have been involved with Mainstream, Momentum, and Open Labour, and we will be running in the upcoming Young Labour and Labour Students elections. 

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But, to offer a new vision of what elections in the Labour Party can be, we are initially only running candidates for national and liberation positions. We will not be running a slate of candidates for regional positions or the Under-18s officer during the nominations period.

There are two reasons for this. First and foremost, we want to encourage young members across the country to stand for positions they otherwise might not, for fear of upsetting a particular faction. Our members are incredibly talented and intimately understand what Young Labour can do in their region; they deserve the opportunity to campaign for themselves. Crucially, we want to give young members an opportunity to present their own ideas, rather than force them into a box. 

Secondly, contests between huge slates of 20+ people inevitably creates committees split along factional lines, discouraging collaboration and cooperation. There is, of course, a need to present our vision and ambitions, and we aim to do this through our national campaign. But, once elections are over, the focus should be on delivering what young members voted for, not rehashing factional battles for the sake of it. 

Those currently in charge of Young Labour, elected on the “Organise!” slate, will argue that they have provided such an opportunity, but when you look at the issues most important to young members, our youth structures have been shamefully silent. 

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As young members called for Young Labour to speak up for trans people, who our Government and society have chosen to scapegoat, those in charge of Young Labour have been busy blocking motions and discussions at Committee meetings on increasingly spurious grounds. As young people across the nation spent weekend after weekend calling for the Government to stand against a genocide, those in charge of Young Labour spent their time organising an event on the nightlife industry at Conference focused on the plight of owners, not workers. So much of the “Organising!” that seems to have taken place is boat parties on the Thames, held while young members across the north of England are barred from holding conferences and electing regional committees.

The reasons for these failures are, in many ways, the same affecting the Government; an obsession with factionalism over collaboration. Those elected on the “Organise” slate have refused to treat Young Labour and Labour Students as having any obligation to represent young members, for fear of upsetting those in HQ and facing now-infamous reprisals.

Some will argue that we are spending too much time navel-gazing, but those people fail to recognise the political extremes young voters are increasingly attracted to. To our right, Reform offers only division and hate. There are those who claim the Greens sit to our left, but a party lacking ambition on energy policy, infrastructure and crucially, with no connection to our trade union movement, is no solution. 

We, as youth and student members of the Labour Party, have a duty to offer an alternative, and we will over the next few weeks offer up our vision for what that alternative can be. If you want to renew Young Labour and Labour Student’s voice in our party, we invite you to join us.

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