Those of you who have read the Party President’s latest missive will have discovered that, last Thursday evening, English Council was invited to ratify the changes needed to enact motion F10 “Constitutional Amendment: Implementing the Lessons of the General Election Review”, as required by the last four lines of the motion:

Conference further notes that implementing these changes will require agreement by the State Parties under Article 2.10(c) and encourages them to give their assent as soon as practical this year.

It didn’t exactly go to plan though as, whilst English Council delegates voted in favour of granting assent, the two-thirds majority required was not reached. Accordingly, assent has not come from the English Party, and the formal work of the proposed new Joint Candidates Sub-Committee is thus in abeyance of sorts.

The Chair of the English Party, Caroline Pidgeon, is quoted as follows:

Since last night’s meeting I have been contacted by many members, wanting clarity about the next steps. Given the clearly expressed desire for change, this issue is not going to disappear. I want to reassure you that as the Chair of the Liberal Democrats in England, I will be speaking with others about an appropriate way forward to find a suitable and acceptable solution that allows for the clear views of the wider membership and English Council to be respected, but that also addresses the outstanding concerns raised at English Council. This will take a few weeks to consider and reflect.

The conclusion that might be drawn from this is that there will be a further attempt to gain assent to the proposals passed overwhelmingly by Federal Conference. The Standing Orders of the English Party require at least three weeks notice of an Emergency Meeting of English Council, which can be called if the Council or the Executive so decides or if requested by any thirty members of the Council, so it could happen before the end of June.

However, if the motion passed by Federal Conference is non-negotiable – it is, after all, the property of Federal Conference now – it will be interesting to see what a “suitable and acceptable solution” looks like. And, what is there that might be offered for enough of the holdouts to sway their vote next time?

But, surely the process of selecting Prospective Parliamentary Candidates could start even without the assent of the English Party, right? The answer is, “maybe”. Would starting the process without a diversity action plan be acceptable, given that we have been told that it will help to increase diversity amongst our candidates, and what Selection Rules would be used, given that the English Party has recently adopted new ones for which the existing Returning Officers, let alone any recent recruits, await training?

I’ll be honest, as a member of a Regional Candidates Committee, I’m not sure how I’d proceed from here. Do we start candidate selections, knowing that, if the English Party gives its assent part way through the process, the English Selection Rules are effectively suspended pending a decision by the new Joint Candidates Sub-Committee who shall “make and from time-to-time vary rules for the selection and adoption of prospective candidates”? After all, one of the complaints made was that the Scots and Welsh weren’t allowed to contribute to the English Party’s revision of its Selection Rules (they have, in recent years, opted to apply the same rules as the English Party). Could you credibly enforce those very same revised English Party Selection Rules in a Federal process?

I will confess that I wasn’t a supporter of the proposals that came to Federal Conference. But, my side lost, and had I been a member of English Council, I might have felt duty bound to reflect the votes of English delegates in Harrogate and voted for assent accordingly. Luckily, I’m not.

But we now have uncertainty where many might have thought we had clarity. And, instead of getting on with the job of selecting candidates for winnable seats, we’ll probably be spending the summer attempting to decide what happens next and who will be responsible for it. It’s not the finest moment for the Party’s bureaucracy…

* Mark Valladares is a member of the East of England Regional Candidates Committee and a veteran Returning Officer, and writes in a personal capacity.