Letters to the Editor – week ending 14 June 2026

Read what people have been writing to our editor about this week. Find out how to share your own views here.

The difference LabourList makes 

Hi Emma

I wanted to send a thank you and an update to LabourList.

In January 2025, I wrote for the first time in LabourList about my idea for a Citizens Advance. Since then, a lot of work has gone into a project with the SMF.Their full report landed today and amongst other media coverage, Polly Toynbee dedicated her column to the idea.

It all started with LabourList and my hope is it ends with this being a Labour Party policy in our next manifesto!

Andrew Lewin MP. 

State of the Party, State of the unions

I hope people listen to your message.

Regarding the Regions, they need to act as a sounding board, in other words more ‘receive’ than ‘transmit’, which is what is currently happening.

Cllr Ramsay Ross

Rutland CC

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I felt compelled to write, in confidence anonymously in solidarity with Cllr Kazim Ali & his brave & thoughtful article.

With my now having served almost thirty years in the Party having been an ex-CLP secretary formerly in London when working at Westminster & an LCF/LGC Chair of five years (8 in total) in northern England when I too in 2022 felt I was blocked as a parliamentary candidate, I share Cllr Ali’s analysis of the deteriorating culture in our Party.

I have been a successful agent to an incumbent MP, a new parliamentary candidate increasing the Labour majority, & sometimes concomitantly for multiple incumbent & new council candidates. In addition, a CLP Chair amidst new boundaries,Group Secretary of a governing Labour Group, & a councillor re-elected with an increased vote share, majority & no’s of votes having initially turned the seat from a marginal to a ‘safer’ seat. Plus a parliamentary candidate many years ago who easily kept my deposit despite being in one of the very safest of Tory seats.

I resigned as a councillor a little while ago for health reasons, after several years service pre-during & post-pandemic, as I could countenance no longer the extremities of the closed culture from the Leadership.

Yet despite ‘earning my spurs’ I have become increasingly of the view that at various levels of the Party, the hierarchy in particular in many quarters are, as Karim said, engaged in vexatious, revenge-fuelled supposed score-settling activities inimical to trust & solidarity.

Mistakes & missteps are judged overly harshly (& I’m not talking about SPAG in campaign copy) & genuine suggestions for improvement are not viewed as constructive feedback, with diligent counsel, advice & guidance treated as a threat.

I join with Kasim in hoping Andy Burnham – pending next week etc – is able to secure a more open & inclusive Party. 

I fear it is too late for people like me.

Kind regards,

Mr Anon.

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Dear James Tibbitts,

First – full disclosure. I am a Labour Party member and have been for most of the last 63 years. I am still a trade union member and have been for 59 years. I was a trade union official for 36 years.

I read your item on the foundational links between the trade unions and the Labour Party with interest and of course the history is well known to me. 

However, I challenge your conclusion that today’s trade union leaders can authentically speak on behalf of today’s members. Just look at the participation levels in the so-called ‘democratic’ structures that put them where they are. The rule books of most unions are still based on a local/workplace branch structure which elects representatives to multiple higher structures and to what in most unions is the governing annual conference. Those wishing to stand for the governing national executive also need nominations from these branches, sometimes in large numbers. 

Whilst this structure might have been appropriate in the 19th or even early 20th century it is currently absurd. The participation rates at branch meetings were abysmal when I first became an official and have only gotten worse. Well meaning people with time on their hands propped up this system. In the case of my union many were members of the Communist Party or SWP who’d never recruited another member, or negotiated with an employer! It was a travesty. 

A system which was on life support when I was a young official has now been completely occupied by people with extremist views who haven’t got a good word to say about our government or, indeed, its predecessors. So it’s no wonder that trade union members wonder why their unions are linked to the Labour Party. It is ludicrous to suggest that leaders elected with the votes of less than 10% of their membership can speak for them. I think the current leader of the NAS/UWT was elected on the votes of 2% of its total membership!

So, what is my conclusion? The unions will continue to be important to the Labour Party because of the power of the cheque book but unless their leaders constantly focus on seeking the unfiltered opinions of their members on political issues, they will continue to be the prisoners of the factions that put them where they are – slagging off the Labour Party. 

James, this isn’t what the founders of the Labour Party had in mind. Who has let them down?

Bill Walsh

Policies and priorities

Dear Emma,

I met John Healey when he was Shadow Housing Secretary under Corbyn. He’s a decent, principled, hardworking man, instinctively loyal to the party. If even he’s resigning, it’s time to sit up and listen. His detractors present us with a false dichotomy – we can spend money on public services or defence, but not both. 

This is a deliberate lie designed to avoid the elephant in the room – a wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires that would provide the revenue we need. If Labour politicians went out and made the case for a wealth tax to help fund defence (and other essentials), then we’ll have the British people with us. We could even frame it as a general shift of the tax system away from income and towards wealth.

Best,

Benj Eckford
Newcastle upon Tyne North CLP

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Hi

Thanks for your list of Andy’s likely policies. His policies on immediate interest to voters are most important along with defence for Ukraine. Another issue , very important to many is Israel, Palestine and future peace and arms to Israel and genocide. 

Kind regards 

Richard Ramsden

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