12July2016NecMeeting
The Labour NEC 12 July 2016 meeting was the one that decided whether Corbyn needed a certain number of MPs' nominations to stand (it decided he didn't).
Corbyn then left the meeting (with Trickett) to address a rally. In the remainder of the meeting, two motions were passed:
- setting the registered supporters fee to £25 instead of £3
- setting a six month qualifying period of Labour members to be able to vote in the leadership election, instead of three weeks
It has been reported as fact Corbyn opponents try to fix vote, ITV.com, 12 July 2016 that Corbyn's opponents on the NEC blindsided him - that these motions were not on the meeting agenda, and/or that due advance warning had not been given of them.
However, the first-hand accounts of the meeting contradict this.
Details are below.
First-Hand Accounts Of The 12 July 2016 Meeting
Both the accounts are by NEC members who are not on the more centrist "Progress" slate of the 2 NEC CLP slates. (It would be pointless using accounts by those on the "Progress" slate, since many Corbyn supporters would simply dismiss them as lies.)
Ann Black is on the left-wing CLP slate. She got most votes in the recent (Aug 2016) NEC elections.
Alice Perry is one of the 2 local authority NEC members.
Were The Motions On Registered Supporter Fees And Qualifying Period Trailed Before The Meeting?
Yes.
Ann Black
In the "Nuts and Bolts" section of her account, Ann clearly states that both motions had been trailed before the meeting, allowing her to canvass members:
Jeremy Corbyn then left again, as we moved on to details of the process. I had asked members about eligibility to vote. There was near-unanimous opposition to last year’s £3 registered supporters, with full members feeling devalued and doubting supporters’ commitment to Labour. Many wanted the scheme scrapped entirely and I would have preferred to do this upfront, but as it is in the rulebook there had to be some minimal allowance. I voted, in line with your views, against extending the two day registration period to seven days, which was lost by 16 votes to 10. The draft proposal was for the one-off fee to be set at £12, and alternatives suggested were £10, £15, £20, £25 and slightly facetiously £500. The meeting voted 15-12 for £25 and I voted in favour, again consistent with what you told me.
I had also asked whether there should be a qualifying period for members. Most people who responded said Yes, with six months the most popular option, in line with choosing candidates at other levels. This was the proposal in the draft paper. However I proposed a more generous cut-off date of 24 June 2016, in line with the NEC ballot and giving a say to members who joined to help in local and mayoral campaigns and in the referendum. Sadly the vote was 14-14 so this was not carried and the 12 January 2016 date went through. I’ve had complaints since the meeting, and would make two points. First, if there was no qualifying period then any ballot would have to be delayed for months to allow CLPs to check the new members. Second, people join to support Labour’s aims and values and to campaign to elect Labour representatives to government. Many of us have stuck with the party under different leaders through continuing commitment to those general principles, not to any individual.
Were The Decisions On Registered Supporter Fees And Qualifying Period On The Agenda For The Meeting Itself?
Yes.
Alice Perry
In the "Leadership election process" section of her account, Alice clearly states that both motions were on the agenda for the meeting itself:
A lot has been written about this already. I hope it is helpful to point out the following:
Decisions about the leadership election process were clearly on the agenda for the meeting on 12 July. The papers were in the room and NEC members were given plenty of time to read them.
Ann Black
Ann also explicitly states that papers were available at the meeting itself in her later update at http://www.annblack.co.uk/nec-meeting-19-july-2016/
...it is not true that papers covering the freeze date, the fee, the sign-up period for registered supporters and the suspension of most local meetings were sprung on the NEC on 12 July after some members had left. All papers were available half an hour before the start. Some of us read them, others didn’t. If more members had stayed we could at least have got a later cut-off date for voting in the leadership election.
Is There An Innocent Explanation For Corbyn Leaving Before Votes On The Supporter's Fee And Exclusion Period?
Yes.
For instance, here are two possible explanations:
- Corbyn had focused on the crucial motion - the one covering whether he could contest the election irrespective of how many MPs nominated him - to the extent that he simply hadn't read the detail of the subsequent motions
- Corbyn assumed the subsequent motions would go the same way as the crucial motion, even if he wasn't present (the crucial motion carried with a majority 18-14)
By the time the crucial motion had been won Corbyn had been in the meeting for hours, working through a gruelling series of procedural wrangles. It is hardly surprising if his reaction to winning was to leave in order to give interviews and talk to a crowd of loyal followers who had been patiently waiting for a good while: from the point of view of the election outcome, no other votes were going to have much of an effect anyway.
This is not to say that he deliberately missed the motions on the supporter's fee and exclusion period for new members.
What's Ann Black's Take On How The Decision Has Been Presented By Momentum?
Pissed Off!
National Policy Forum, 17-18 February 2018
Momentum claim that I was responsible for excluding 120,000 members from the 2016 leadership election. This is false. The first vote at the NEC meeting on 12 July 2016 was on whether Jeremy Corbyn should automatically be on the ballot paper. I voted in favour, and it was carried 18-14. Jeremy and Jon Trickett then left to do media interviews while the NEC continued to work through the procedures. The draft paper included a cut-off date of 12 January. I proposed changing this to 24 June, so that everyone who joined to help in the local elections and the referendum would be included. The vote was 14-14, so it was not carried. Had all NEC members stayed in the room the exclusion period would have been reduced from six months to under three weeks, and many thousands more members could have voted.
Why Does Momentum Have The Knives Out For Ann Black?
She's in the way.
Momentum is (quite understandably) eager to convert its NEC majority into a solid hold over other power centres of the Labour party.
While Ann Black is definitely on the left of the party, she'll work out her stance according to principles rather than stick rigidly to a slate.
Therein lies her problem.
Ann was replaced by a Momentum loyalist (Christine Shawcroft) as chair of the Disputes Panel on 16 Jan 2018. As well as giving Momentum more control over Labour's disciplinary processes, the chair of the Disputes Panel is one of a small number of NEC positions with representation on the eight-seat NEC officers group, which decides rules around by-elections and late retirements. See Labour’s NEC row over Ann Black is actually a row about parliamentary selections for more on that.
Recently, there was the most tremendous kerfuffle over the position of chair of the National Policy Forum. An election to replace the outgoing chair (Ann Cryer) was cancelled at the 11th hour by the NEC on the grounds that 7 day's notice of the election had not been given. Ann Black was poised to win this election (over the Momentum candidate, Andi Fox) and has pointed out at National Policy Forum, 17-18 February 2018 that:
- such a 7-day rule has never been applied to NPF decision-making before
- the notice of the election for the chair of the Disputes Panel was only 5 days