‘Young Labour elections give radical realists a path to power’

The recent Young Labour vote provides reasons to be hopeful about the upcoming elections for Labour’s national executive, and outlines a path for the left and centre to win.

Often considered a dry run for other internal party elections, Young Labour heralded positive results, with the left and centre going from 1 position in 2024 to 6 regional and national representatives under the Renew Young Labour banner. Despite claims from the Labour to Win backed ‘Organise!’, these results show remarkable progress for the left as members see our party becoming increasingly divided. Young Labour, once a body which focused on training the next generation of activists while allowing for political exploration within Labour’s traditions, has been perceived by some to push members out.

The youth and student wings now occupy a largely ceremonial role with 2025’s ‘Youth and Student Congress’ possessing no democratic function – the last one to do so being under a left majority in 2023. While the focus of media speculation may now centre on No.10 hopefuls, it is these committees which occupy a key role in shaping party culture.

READ MORE: ‘What is the Soft Left?’

The atmosphere of hostility and focus on factional points scoring, as we have seen recently during the local election short campaign, will only push away our activists at the time they are needed most. Sadly, the Green Party, now with the largest youth section in the UK, is increasingly filling this void. Labour Students, where the right won a clear majority, has been diminished such that peer nominations for candidates struggled to break triple digits, only doing so for nationally elected positions – a sad position for a movement which has benefitted our party.

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For many, politics in the Labour Party can require a maturity that other progressive parties do not. We recognise that in order to avoid alienating voters we must be strategic in how we sell socialist politics. But this approach is a difficult balancing act. When leadership focuses on preserving the party image over allowing others to express their view, members feel they are not being listened to.

Mainstream can learn from this by doing what Renew did, leaning into why people become passionate about left politics in the first place by striving for equality and solidarity. Indeed, it is the range of Young Labour candidates elected as part of the Renew campaign which represents the strength of our movement. Renew did not begin by running regional candidates or an Under 18s Representative, instead allowing for local candidates rooted in their regions to emerge.

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With the upcoming NEC and NPF elections members must feel valued and allowed to express their wants to a Labour Party which listens. This means the Party working to reclaim this ‘lost generation’ of young members, by providing a serious and disciplined progressive alternative to the Greens which does not water-down our policy agenda. This is what Mainstream will be campaigning on throughout the summer.

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