After over 20 years, the Labour Representation Committee decided at its AGM in December 2025 to dissolve, reports Pete Firmin.

During its 21-year existence, the LRC had the support of many trade unions, at both national and local level, CLPs and MPs. Many who have been active in the LRC over the years are prominent at one level or another in the movement. John McDonnell MP, one of the original instigators of the LRC, was the driving force behind much of its activity.

What distinguished the LRC was that it saw itself as a campaigning body, not just one which lobbied and proposed motions for Labour Party Conferences. It supported unions and campaigns in their struggles, and was visible on protests and demonstrations.

The LRC strongly supported policy campaigns, NEC and Labour leadership candidates, sometimes with success. The LRC was a staunch supporter of the Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party – which did not mean it hid criticisms it had.

Like much of the labour movement, the LRC had its ups and downs and disagreements around many issues over the years, such as Brexit, trans rights, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and whether to intervene in the internal elections of unions, though – usually – managing to discuss them in a comradely manner. 

But in recent years ,many members have been expelled from the Labour Party for defying orders not to discuss various issues, allegations of antisemitism or claims of belonging to organisations the NEC deemed to be incompatible with membership. Others have left in despair at the right wing policies and – internal and external – authoritarianism of the Starmer government and its support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

While others stay in the Labour Party to fight this, it became increasingly difficult to operate as an organisation which said what it would like to, while not unnecessarily endangering the Party membership of those comrades.

This brought into question the political and practical viability of the LRC.

The end of the LRC does not mean that its members are walking away from the struggle. An indication of this was given by the fact that prior to discussion of dissolution, it had sessions on fighting racism, defending the NHS, and the housing crisis with leading campaigners.

As John McDonnell says: “The LRC played a vital role at a time when it was critical to bring together the left in the Labour Party and trade unions to lay the foundations for the struggle against neoliberalism. It served its purpose during some tough years and now that spirit of struggle and solidarity will be upheld in many other organisational forms.”

Graham Bash, an active member and officer for most of the LRC’s existence, says: “The LRC always had the right concept of struggling within the mass organisations of the working class – the Labour Party and trade unions – while at the same time being programmatically sharp and intransigent. It was consistently critical of the right wing leaderships in both the Party and the unions. It fought within the Labour Party but always recognised that we had to support mass struggle outside of the party. It recognised that in the beginning was the class struggle. And it was always internationalist to its core, opposing British involvement and support for imperialism in Iraq, Libya, Iran and Israel. As a founding member of the LRC, I can say we operated in the right place, even though we were not as effective as we should have been.”

As the resolution passed at the AGM said “ We remain comrades and committed to the struggle for socialism.”

Pete Firmin was an active member of the LRC throughout, and moved the resolution to dissolve. He was suspended and then expelled from the Labour Party not long after becoming Chair of Hampstead and Kilburn Constituency Labour Party.