NEC Statement from Momentum: ‘Vote for us for a transformed party and radical governing programme’

Today, LabourList are running op-eds from the four slates running candidates for Labour’s National Executive Committee. We will continue to engage with candidates across the party so members can hear from slates and individuals. If you are an independent candidate (not on a slate) and have five CLP nominations please get in touch. 

The faction who currently control Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) and — just about — run 10 Downing Street have long insisted that “indulging” the progressive causes of party members and trade unionists is a recipe for alienating the public and losing elections. This government’s record shows the opposite is true.

Just consider the key decisions that have contributed to the government’s dramatic slump in popularity and the electoral threat Labour now faces. Cutting the winter fuel allowance. Slashing disabled people’s benefits. Adopting Rishi Sunak’s “fiscal rules” and starving our already bone-thin public services of investment. Aping right wing rhetoric on migrants and refugees. Failing to oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza and then cracking down on peaceful protest against it in a manner more authoritarian than the Tories dreamt of.

Together these missteps have cost our party the support of millions. Each and every one has cut against the views and wishes of party members and trade unionists.

Become a friend of LabourList and join our community. Our friends support our vital non-factional work and get access to exclusive content and events. 

This NEC election, alongside the wider leadership debate, is about what kind of party we should be. At its best, Labour reflects an organic link to millions of ordinary people through a mass membership and an even bigger pool of affiliated trade unionists. Party supporters do not live in activist bubbles separate from the rest of society; our commitment to real Labour values comes from our lived experiences, rooted in our communities.

But with its current intolerant, top-down culture — a “brittle elite club” as Unison’s General Secretary recently described it — the party is shunning its biggest strength and is unfit to take on the massive challenge before us.

It’s clear that this NEC election is an opportunity to course-correct towards a more pluralistic party. Our colleagues in Mainstream (with whom we have promoted the ‘Reset the Labour Party’ statement) have played an important role in putting this issue back on the agenda, and we commend them for that.

We recognise, too, that Andy Burnham’s recent track record here has been encouraging, from supporting Socialist Campaign Group MPs faced with vindictive trigger ballot efforts to insisting on the need for a change in party culture.

But the Grassroots Voice slate for the NEC, backed by Momentum and the Centre Left Grassroots Alliance, has a distinctive perspective in this campaign. Our candidates believe that nods to pluralism alone won’t cut it. For a change in leadership to mean anything, we need an actual shift in how the party is run and for that shift to facilitate a much more radical governing programme – geared towards transforming the country, not more tinkering.

We must also focus on the deep damage caused by pushing so many of our supporters – dedicated activists and voters, especially young people, into the arms of the Greens, shattering progressive unity at precisely the time it is most vital. This has included obstructing hardworking councillors who have gone on to be elected as Greens, and explicitly telling Left-wing voters Labour isn’t the home for them. We have ended up with the strange – and catastrophic – spectacle of the party consciously melting away its own support base.

Stopping this haemorrhaging of support is often presented as some kind of balancing act between left and right. But while it is true that voters are abandoning Labour in all directions, many more are being lost to the left.

At the local elections, almost four times as many 2024 Labour voters went Green than to Reform. Unsurprisingly, this gave the right a helping hand all over the country: from major Reform victories in Wigan and Tameside, to Westminster and Wandsworth, where the Tories got back in.

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook. You can also write to our editor to share your thoughts on our stories and share your own. The best letters are published every Sunday.

If we are going to defeat the far-right, we need to transform and renew the country in the interests of the vast majority. That is going to require public ownership across the board, massive investment in our services and industries funded by new taxes on the wealthy, and much more robust measures to protect workers while empowering unions. And it’s going to require a laser focus on fixing our crumbling country – rather than getting entangled in foreign wars, or chasing Donald Trump’s inflated defence spending targets.

That’s why we need a democratic Labour Party —  a party whose ruling structures serve not as rubber-stamping bodies but as a means of making sure our government delivers that agenda. Our slate, including ourselves (Gemma and, in the Local Government section, Jamie), Jess, Yasmine and Minesh are steadfast socialists who will fight to deliver that on the NEC. Vote for us: for a transformed party and radical governing programme.

READ MORE: 

Labour To Win statement
Mainstream statement
Restoration NEC statement

• • SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
  • SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
  • BECOME A FRIEND: If you enjoyed this, why not consider becoming a Friend of LabourList? Help sustain our journalism, and of course Friends do get benefits…
  • PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
  • ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].