A week ago, Party members in England received an email that may have left some of them puzzled. It asked if they wished to nominate candidates for an election for the English Party representatives to various Federal Party Committees, such as the Federal Policy Committee and the Conference Committee. The unusual thing is that while they can nominate candidates, they don’t get a vote.

Ten years ago, as the Party confronted a disastrous general election result, the Autumn Conference made a significant change to who could attend our twice-yearly Conferences and how people were elected to the Federal Committees that run the Party. It decided that any member could attend Conference and all members would  be entitled to vote in the elections to a number of Federal Committee – One Member, One Vote ( OMOV) 

It seems extraordinary now, but that wasn’t how things were always done. Before then, each local party elected representatives to Conference, and only they could vote in Federal elections. At the time of the debate, Mark Pack wrote an article for LDV entitled, “Would you abolish One Member One Vote if it was already in place?” 

With the benefit of ten years’ experience of OMOV we  can see he was spot on.

Following the decision in 2016, Regional Party Constitutions in England were changed to reflect the principle of OMOV in the way Regional Parties were organised, so that all members could attend their conference and vote for Regional Executives. But that change was not reflected in how English reps to Federal Committees are elected. 

We believe that the time has come to allow members in England to have a vote in who represents them. On Sunday at 9:30 a.m., there is an opportunity for Conference to change this by passing our constitutional amendment, F21. This amendment states that all members in England should have a vote on who represents them. There are elections this year, but in order to give the English Party time to implement the change properly, it won’t come into effect until 2028.

Lets complete the  policy agreed 10 years ago and give English members a vote