“I have consistently used my voice to maximise the democratic participation of Labour Party members and campaigned for a socialist, transformational policy agenda to fix the deep structural problems our country and the world faces.”
By Gemma Bolton
Like all Labour members, I woke up on 5th July with a huge sense of optimism and relief that after 13 cruel years of Tory rule, we had finally kicked them out of government.
Just over a month since Labour formed our own government, it is clear that the mess we have inherited is a massive one. Yet this is more reason to stand by our convictions and values as a party, not to shy away from them.
Our victory was a historically peculiar one in that we managed to achieve a parliamentary landslide with only a 34% share of the overall votes cast. An analysis of the results suggests our victory owed as much to the splitting of the right-wing vote as it did to the commendably efficient distribution of our votes and messaging to key voters in key constituencies.
We also struggled in areas with a higher proportion of younger voters and those from ethnic minority backgrounds, losing a number of seats to pro-Palestine and left-wing independents. These are stark warning signs that our voting coalition – and as a result our parliamentary majority – is potentially fragile.
What should all of this mean for our programme in government, then?
The far-right, racist, Islamophobic pogroms and violence that erupted in August, and which saw refugees and mosques attacked, should be seen as a wake-up call to the government in terms of just how terrifying a daily reality racism is for ethnic minorities in Britain.
Locking up the perpetrators of the violence is not enough. Labour needs to show real moral leadership by establishing a positive narrative around refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. There should be no extension of Theresa May’s hostile environment.
The last Labour government effectively ended child poverty – our new government needs to be as ambitious. And, yes, this will mean scrapping the two-child benefit cap in its entirety, not withdrawing the whip from MPs who voted for this.
Equally, we need to raise a series of sustained wealth taxes on big business, which has profited from the energy and cost of living crisis, not impose a new round of crippling austerity on communities.
We need to show global moral leadership to help end the genocide in Gaza by ending all arms sales to Israel, recognising a Palestinian state, calling for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire and demonstrating our unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people.
We need bold action on the climate emergency, establishing massive investment in green industry, retro-fitting households and businesses, and adapting our lived environment to be able to cope with rising temperatures. Every bit of carbon we take out of the atmosphere will benefit generations to come.
Yet whilst the priorities of governing the country will be urgent, the internal governance of our own party still matters too.
Many of the selections for parliamentary seats in the general election were factional and farcical. Long-standing activists, trade unionists and councillors were unceremoniously blocked from standing, while NEC members sat on panels to select fellow NEC members for Labour-held seats. The NEC needs an urgent review to ensure that, in future, members decide their parliamentary candidates, not the party’s top brass.
In government, having the ear of our voter base becomes even more important. This is why the decisions of our party’s sovereign body, conference – which comprises members, activists and trade unionists from all walks of life and from the length and breadth of the country – must be heeded by Labour ministers and MPs.
Furthermore, local government selections will soon begin, some in areas where our vote share fell in the last general election. There must be no purge of long-standing and hard-working sitting councillors in favour of leadership allies or we will surely lose more councils to independents and other parties.
Finally, we must restore the whip to the 7 labour MPs who bravely put country before party and voted to end the two child benefit cap.
I have sat on Labour’s NEC for four years, being elected for the first time in 2020. In this time, I have consistently used my voice to maximise the democratic participation of Labour Party members and campaigned for a socialist, transformational policy agenda to fix the deep structural problems our country and the world faces.
It is on the basis of this record that I have been nominated by 70 CLPs and have been endorsed by the Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance (CLGA) – a coalition of organisations that represent the breadth of Labour’s grassroots, including: Momentum, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, Welsh Labour Grassroots, Campaign for Socialism, Labour Assembly Against Austerity and Labour Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Harold Wilson once said “[The Labour Party] is a moral crusade or it is nothing”. With a new Labour government and huge parliamentary majority, Labour members must use their NEC votes to back voices who believe this – and who will fight for it too.
Please vote for me and the rest of the #Grassroots4 team: Jess Barnard, Yasmine Dar and Mish Rahman. Use this handy postcode tool finder to check the recommended order in which to vote in your region to maximise our chances of success.
- You can use the postcode finder to check the recommended order of votes when casting your vote for the #Grassroots4 – Jess Barnard, Gemma Bolton, Yasmine Dar and Mish Rahman.
- Gemma Bolton is a members’ representative on Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) standing for re-election. You can follow her on Twitter/X here.
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