A report of some of the Shenanigans at Annual Conference in Manchester, September 2008

•    A delegate in the Yorkshire Region has reported to their GC that at Manchester regional full time officials recommended a slate for the Conference Arrangements Committee which included NPF Rep Andy Furlong (a so called ‘moderate’ in the West Midlands), but did not include the T&G candidate, Mick Murphy.
•    In the London Region a CLP Chair has complained to his CLP’s EC members that regional officials were texting some delegates with a recommended slate for the CAC.
•    In the Southern Region a delegate has complained to his GC that groups of delegates were taken out of Conference by regional officials to meet Minister, Pat McFadden, who told then why they should not support the unions over the abolition of the opt out from the European Working Time Directive.
•    In the Eastern Region a delegate has complained to their CLP’s EC members that regional officials were lobbying delegates as to how they should vote.
•    In the North West Region a delegate has complained to his CLP Secretary that a regional official strongly recommended voting for the two so-called ‘moderate’ candidates for the NCC on the grounds that ‘there are easier to work with’.
•    This culture of illegitimate interference by party staff began under the Blair regime. It was a only a few years ago that a regional official was caught with a list of Conference delegates that was graded ‘A’ to ‘D’, ‘A’ being considerd the most malleable delegates and ‘D’ assigned to delegates who were understood to believe that the party’s rule book should be upheld and that the party’s staff should act as impartial civil servants. The errant officials had been concentrating on the ‘A’ and ‘B’ delegates, making sure they not only voted, but voted the ‘right’ way.

A few years prior to this an email was leaked to Tribune which requested regional officials to actively organise against the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance slate, in favour of a so called ‘moderate’ slate.

It was expected that under the Brown regime this unacceptable behaviour would cease, as it brings the party into disrepute.

This website will continue to expose abuses until firm action is taken to uphold the rule book and ensure that party staff properly act as civil servants. The NEC’s Code of Conduct explicitly states that ‘Party Staff will not use their position, party resources or time in the process of an internal election so as to further the interests of any candidate’

Other Shenanigans

In one Region the Party’s Regional Secretary attended a Regional TULO meeting and told the unions to vote for a well known CLP ‘moderate’ for one of the two regional places on the NPF in the forthcoming region party elections