Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons has resigned from the Government following revelations about the shadowy Labour Together faction which he led. Long-standing Labour activist Frank Hansen sets out what needs to happen next.

Two things are clear from recent events in the Labour Party: Keir Starmer has to resign and we need a more democratic leadership election method. The latter is unlikely to be achievable before the next leadership election, because many in the Parliamentary Labour Party – especially the Cabinet – and the Labour bureaucracy are still in the grip of Labour Together’s programme and culture and certainly won’t want to change the rules.

You can bet they are planning for Starmer’s resignation after the May elections, as well as a succession, possibly Wes Streeting. So the left and centre need to plan for that – which means finding a candidate.

We need someone  to stand who is going to galvanise opposition to the current policies – even if they don’t get far. The new leader and Cabinet may make concessions – but the fight for policy change needs to continue in a more organised way, with a view to fighting for another leadership contest before the next General Election.

What next? Certainly we need to develop a programme of policies to be implemented, as well as policies to be dropped, for example, immigration reform and the Palestine Action ban. It should focus on key policies that benefit working people and erode Reform’s support, a programme that can unite as many people across the Party as possible. Labour still has a massive Parliamentary majority and that needs to be used -and can be used – to bring about positive change. To agree such a programme there needs to be a grassroots process to discuss and approve it, but not a lengthy one, and a group of MPs – and unions – to champion it.

But we mustn’t lose sight of the current unfolding grave scandal surrounding Mandelson, McSweeney, Simons and Starmer. Starmer is busy trying to bury it already, only making concessions when forced to. You can bet that once Starmer is replaced there will be those in the Cabinet and the PLP who will want it buried for good. There needs to be a thorough investigation into the allegations that have been made and are listed in Paul Holden’s The Fraud – starting with the dirty campaign against the left and Corbynism, through Starmer’s election as leader, the General Election campaign and the actions of this Government. This should also look into allegations of  a boys’ club culture at the top of the Party and its bureaucracy, which links into why is was so easy for them to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador despite the obvious Epstein links and why these could be ignored as unimportant, until further details turned it into a  massive scandal.

This is arguably our last chance to democratise and revitalise the Party in the longer term. Along with a political programme, we need a set of demands around restoring Party democracy at all levels. This doesn’t have to wait until after an inquiry – I’m sure the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and others could advise on the specific details of these demands and how they could be implemented. It isn’t a left/right issue: we all agree that we need a democratic Party that is immune to cynical manipulation by the likes of Mandelson and McSweeney.

Thanks to Labour Together and Government policies, the Party has lost many activists who have either been expelled, or left in disgust. Plus, there are those – such as current councillors or Parliamentary candidates – who have been vetoed and excluded by the Labour Together clique. Party members are now prevented from selecting their own representatives.

This raises the issue of victims. If the party is to attract new blood, it needs a process that is democratic and accepts that many people have been treated unjustly in terms of procedures and expulsions due to Labour Together’s dirty tricks.  Why shouldn’t people be allowed to rejoin if this is the case? Some were members for decades and we should be encouraging them to do so.  There needs to be a process for reopening these issues.

 Frank Hansen is a former Councillor in the London Borough of Brent.

Restore Labour Democracy! Five union General Secretaries and two dozen Labour MPs launched a statement last month to Restore Labour Democracy. You can sign it here.

Main image: Josh Simons MP https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Official_portrait_of_Josh_Simons_MP_crop_2.jpg Source: https://members.parliament.uk/member/5060/portrait. Author: Roger Harris, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.