“We will only succeed if we are able to re-establish a democratic, broad church party, responsive to its members and respecting their rights.”
John McDonnell MP wrote a piece for the Socialist Campaign Group’s 2026 pamphlet ‘The Socialist Policies We Need’. You can read the pamphlet in full below.
For any Labour Party member, one of the most significant statements made by Andy Burnham when he was elected leader was that he promised to change the culture of the Labour Party and to end the factionalism that had dominated the party over recent years.
This was a definite reason for many party members welcoming his installation as leader of the party. It was an essential component of the message of hope that he gave us all.
As a corollary, it will be one of the key premises on which his leadership will be judged a success or failure.
We now have the hope of returning to a party where political debate can take place shorn of the threat of the Labour whip being withdrawn from MPs or councillors who simply wish to pose alternatives and, in doing so, represent their constituents and their honestly held views.
We have the hope of restoring the rights of party members to discuss and debate party policy respectfully and without heavy-handed censorship from above.
We have the hope of protecting the rights of party members to select their own candidates for Parliament and council without the blocking of candidates for factional purposes, without the parachuting in of favoured candidates into safe seats, and without the manipulation of ballots and the party’s disciplinary procedures to deny local parties the right to determine their own panel of candidates.
To fulfil these hopes, Andy Burnham and the whole party need an honest appraisal of how we have arrived at a situation in which a political party – which from its very foundation over a century ago prided itself on bringing together a broad church of progressive political opinion and, as a result, over time secured broad agreement and popular support for transforming our political and economic system – has degenerated into a bureaucracy dominated by a ruthless political gang.
When Keir Starmer stood down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, he stated that, when he became leader, he had inherited a party that was financially and morally bankrupt.
Just for the record, the party was not financially bankrupt because instead of relying upon donations from rich individuals or corporations, the massive increase in membership to over 550,000 and the firm support of our affiliated trade unions under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership had turned the party’s finances around from the heavy indebtedness of the party in 2015.
However, as for the issue of moral bankruptcy, Keir Starmer carefully ignored the findings of the report he commissioned from Martin Forde KC that exposed the “toxic” culture within the party bureaucracy, its establishment of a hierarchy of racism, its use of antisemitism as a “factional weapon,” its abuse of the disciplinary system for factional advantage and its racial abuse of leading party members. We now know that much of this was the work of the faction that brought him to power.
It is also impossible to take seriously a person claiming the moral high ground who appointed Peter Mandelson – longstanding friend of known paedophile Jeffrey Epstein – to the most senior diplomatic post in our country. Or who refused a series of demands for an independent inquiry into the role of Labour Together in the party and the allegations of its career-threatening smearing of journalists reporting its activities.
If we are to have any chance of changing the culture of the party there is an obvious need to confront honestly the degeneration of the party’s democracy in this recent period and to learn the lessons of how one faction manipulated party procedures, party appointments, balloting procedures and selections to impose a form of absolute control over the party.
This is why the call for an independent inquiry into the party bureaucracy in this period, including into the role of Labour Together, is so important to clean the slate for Andy Burnham and give him a fresh start.
A decisive step would be to invite Martin Forde KC to come back, with his independent panel, to undertake a fresh inquiry and overview a programme of democratic reform.
Earlier this year a coalition of trade union leaders, MPs and party organisations called for an end to factionalism and the restoration of the rights of party members and democracy in the party. It was at the time when the National Executive Committee had disgracefully blocked Andy Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
A number of basic reforms have been suggested by a range of organisations and representatives across the political spectrum of the party to take the first steps in restoring democracy to the party.
These have included:
- Ending the censorship of local constituency parties debating political issues. The blocking of local parties being able to even discuss the genocide taking place in Gaza is a stark example of the worst excesses of centralised party censorship. Of course debate has to be held in a respectful and comradely manner and we have time-honoured procedures to ensure this takes place or is addressed if not operating effectively
- Restoring the right of party members to select their candidates for Parliamentary and local elections by returning the right of Constituency Labour Parties to longlist and shortlist their candidates. Too often, candidates have been blocked from standing without any valid reason and with no regard for the wishes of local party members. This process has been brutal, resulting in many long-serving party members who have given their lives to the party and local community being blocked from standing for factional purposes and enabling the parachuting in of a factionally favoured candidate.
- Reversing the anti-democratic changes introduced under Keir Starmer, including reversing the changes to the thresholds for leadership elections that are used to deny members a choice.
- Introducing independent voting systems with independent scrutiny, including the scrapping of the now notorious Anonyvoter system.
- Restoring a culture where Labour Party staff are the party’s neutral civil servants serving the interests of the democratically determined policies and programmes of the party and not factionally aligned.
All of us are desperate to ensure the success of Andy Burnham’s administration, not least because we fear the threat of Reform to our country.
We will only succeed, though, if we are able to re-establish a democratic, broad church party, responsive to its members and respecting their rights.
- John McDonnell is the MP for Hayes and Harlington. You can follow him on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
- You can read the SCG pamphlet ‘The Socialist Policies We Need’ in full here. The foreword says that “We hope this contributes to a debate across the Labour Party, trade unions and the wider movement about the political programme needed to deliver the change people voted for, to build a better future for our communities and to prevent the rise of a Trump-style government here in Britain.“
- If you support Labour Outlook’s work amplifying the voices of left movements and struggles here and internationally, please donate here or become a regular supporter on Patreon here.
